Design, Preparation and Studies Regarding Cytotoxic Properties of Benzyl Oleanates

Oleanolic acid (OA) is a natural product with certain antitumor activity. In order to enhance its cytotoxicity, a total of five derivatives of OA were designed and synthesized. Their cytotoxicity against MDA-MB-231cells (human breast cancer cells), A549 cells (human nonsmall cell lung cancer cells) and BEAS-2B cells (human cervical cancer cells) were evaluated by the MTT (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide) method. The results indicated that these target compounds have a wide molar activity range and some of them showed better activity than the commercial drug, doxorubicin. Compound 2a induces apoptosis of 14, 27, and 56% of MDA-MB-231 cells at 2, 4, and 8 mM respectively, and shows a linear correlation of concentration.