Synthesis and antitumor activity of nitric oxide-donating glycyrrhetinic acid derivatives coupled with nitrate moiety

Nine new nitric oxide-donating derivatives of glycyrrhetinic acid coupled with nitrate moieties were designed,synthesized,and evaluated for their in vitro cytotoxicity against four cancer cell lines by MTT assay.Nitrate moieties were conjugated with C3-OH or/and C30-COOH of glycyrrhetinic acid via a variety of aliphatic linkers,affording the target compounds 4a-4f and 8a-8c ,respectively,and their structures were confirmed by MS,IR and ¹H NMR.The MTT assay demonstrated that some of the target compounds exhibited potential cytotoxicity against human hepatocellular carcinoma cells(HepG2 and BEL-7402),human breast cancer MCF-7 cells and human promyelocytic leukemia HL-60 cells.