Synthesis and antitumour activity of glycyrrhetinic acid derivatives

Glycyrrhetinic acid (GA) is one of many interesting triterpenoic acids showing anticancerogenic potential. GA is known to trigger apoptosis in tumour cell lines, although GA has a low cytotoxicity. In our study we were able to prepare derivatives of GA that show lowered the IC(50) values as determined by a sulforhodamine B (SRB) assay using 15 different human tumour cell lines. Thus, combining an ester group combined with the presence of an amino acid moiety led to a ca. 60-fold improved antitumor activity. Experiments on mouse embryonic fibroblasts (NiH3T3) revealed that these compounds showed a better selectivity for tumour cells compared to the parent compound GA. An apoptotic effect of some of these compounds was determined using an acridine orange/ethidium bromide (AO/EB) test and DNA laddering experiments.