This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: A team of scientists from the Department of Organic Chemistry at the Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, has reported a new method that simplifies the preparation of complex molecules. The work was published in the journal Organic Letters.
Such molecules are related to natural compounds known for their anticancer and anti-inflammatory effects. The new approach could help scientists prepare different variants of these compounds and study their biological effects. These natural compounds have a complex three-dimensional structure made up of three connected rings, which makes them very difficult to prepare in the laboratory.
One example is galiellalactone, a compound isolated from the fungus Galiella rufa. Galiellalactone shows interesting biological activity—it affects the signaling protein STAT3, which, when misregulated, can contribute to uncontrolled cell growth. For this reason, this natural product is being studied for its potential use in treating chemotherapy-resistant prostate cancer.
A similar structural motif can also be found in other naturally occurring compounds, including diocollettines A and rehmaglutin B. Previous methods for preparing these molecules had several drawbacks. Some important reactions produced only small amounts of the desired product or resulted in mixtures of molecules with different three-dimensional structures.
A team led by Eliška Matoušová has now designed and successfully tested an elegant three-step process that significantly reduces these problems. The new method combines three consecutive chemical reactions that make it possible to build the complex molecule gradually and precisely. This gives scientists better control over its final three-dimensional structure, which is also important for its potential biological effects.
Using X-ray crystallography, the scientists confirmed the precise three-dimensional structure of selected molecules they had prepared. In collaboration with the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences (Helena Mertlíková-Kaiserová), the researchers then tested the prepared compounds on four types of human cancer cells and healthy human skin cells. Although the compounds did not show a direct toxic effect on cancer cells in the initial tests, the new method makes it easy to further modify their structure.
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