Syntheses and anticancer activities of novel glucosylated (−)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate derivatives linked via triazole rings

Novel glucosylated (-)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate derivatives 10 – 13 having the EGCG analogs conjugated to the d -glucosyl azide were synthesized by carrying out the copper-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC) reaction, and were evaluated for their cytotoxicities against a panel of five human cancer cell lines (HL-60, SMMC-7721, A-549, MCF-7, and SW480) using MTT assays. Compounds 10 and 11 showed the highest levels of cytotoxicity against the HL-60 cells with IC 50 values of 4.57 and 3.78 μM, respectively, and showed moderate selectivity toward cancer cell lines. Compound 11 was also shown to induce apoptosis in HL-60 cells. Most notably, inclusion of the perbutyrylated glucose residue in an EGCG derivative was concluded to lead to increased anticancer activity.