Access to new highly potent antileukemia, antiviral and antimalarial agents via hybridization of natural products (homo)egonol, thymoquinone and artemisinin

Publication date: Available online 24 May 2018
Source:Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry
Author(s): Aysun Çapcı Karagöz, Christoph Reiter, Ean-Jeong Seo, Lisa Gruber, Friedrich Hahn, Maria Leidenberger, Volker Klein, Frank Hampel, Oliver Friedrich, Manfred Marschall, Barbara Kappes, Thomas Efferth, Svetlana B. Tsogoeva
Hybridization of natural products has high potential to further improve their activities and may produce synergistic effects between linked pharmacophores. Here we report synthesis of nine new hybrids of natural products egonol, homoegonol, thymoquinone and artemisinin and evaluation of their activities against P. falciparum 3D7 parasites, human cytomegalovirus, sensitive and multidrug-resistant human leukemia cells. Most of the new hybrids exceed their parent compounds in antimalarial, antiviral and antileukemia activities and in some cases show higher in vitro efficacy than clinically used reference drugs chloroquine, ganciclovir and doxorubicin. Combined, our findings stress the high potency of these hybrids and encourages further use of the hybridization concept in applied pharmacological research.

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