Red Fluorescent Molecule with Aggregation-Induced Emission Based on Dehydroabietic Acid Diarylamine for Bioimaging.

In this paper, molecules with AIE red light properties were designed by coupling dehydroabietic acid diarylamine and 2,3-diphenylfumaronitrile, which were designated 2DTPA-CN and 2TPA-CN. The emission wavelengths were 683 nm and 701 nm, respectively. The 2DTPA-CN and 2TPA-CN showed typical AIE characteristics with large Stokes shifts of 7.4 × 104 cm-1 and 6.7 × 104 cm-1, respectively. The obvious solvatochromism and electron cloud distributions of HOMO/LUMO in the ground and excited states both reveal the intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) effect. The 2DTPA-CN, boasting exceptional biocompatibility, was successfully prepared into nanoparticles (NPs), which were applied to tumor cell imaging, showing good bioimaging effects both in vitro imaging in live cells and in vivo imaging in live mice. The results demonstrated that it possesses significant potential as an effective bioimaging reagent for the detection of tumor cells. Furthermore, the incorporation of 2,3-diphenylfumaronitrile moieties to dehydroabietic acid diarylamine emerged as a proficient approach to broaden the emission wavelengths of rosin-based fluorescent materials.

A new dehydroabietic acid-based arylamine fluorescent probe: Synthesis, structure analysis and in vitro biodiagnose function.

A new fluorescent probe (methyl 13-(α-naphthalene)aminodeisopropyldehydroabietate) has been synthesized, and its structure was optimized by theoretical DFT calculation and determinated by single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis. The optimized data are in agreement with the experimental values. The fluorescence properties, photostability, cell toxicity and in vitro fluorescence imaging of the compound have been investigated. The results indicated that it can be effectively taken up by HeLa, 7721, 7901 and A549 cells and strong blue fluorescence signals were detected in these cells.

Antitumor activity and structure-activity relationship of diterpenoids with a dehydroabietyl skeleton.

A series of novel diterpenoids including imines, amides and ureas with a dehydroabietyl skeleton were screened to hepatocellular carcinoma (SMMC-7721), lung cancer (A-549), glioma (C-6) and breast carcinoma (MCF-7) tumor cells by MTT method. Their antitumor activity and structure activity relationship were analyzed. Several of the title compounds such as I-2, I-10, I-6 and I-5, possess noticeable antitumor activity against SMMC-7721, A-549, C-6 and MCF-7 tumor cells, with lowest IC(50) values of 6.65, 0.75, 0.81 and 10.65µM, respectively. Based on the structure-activity relationship investigation, the three kinds of diterpenoids with a dehydroabietyl skeleton show high activity to SMMC-7721 cells. Imines derivatives exhibit broad spectrum and highly efficient activities to the selected four kinds of tumor cells.

Synthesis, structure analysis and cytotoxicity studies of novel unsymmetrically n,n'-substituted ureas from dehydroabietic Acid.

A series of novel unsymmetrically N,N'-substituted ureas were synthesized from dehydroabietic acid and their structures were characterized by IR, 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR spectroscopy and single crystal X-ray diffraction. Three six-membered rings of urea 4c exhibited plane, half-chair and chair configurations, respectively. Their cytotoxicity activities against SMMC7721 liver cancer cells were evaluated by MTT (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide) method. The results showed that the title compounds exhibited highly effective cytotoxicity activities against SMMC7721 cells. Their IC50 values are between 8.8 and 14.2 micromol/l. The change of N' substituted groups resulted little difference to the cytotoxicity activities of ureas, which indicated that the cytotoxicity of this kind of ureas depend strongly on the tricyclic hydrophenanthrene structure.

Cytotoxic effects and pro-apoptotic mechanism of TBIDOM, a novel dehydroabietylamine derivative, on human hepatocellular carcinoma SMMC-7721 cells.

We have investigated the antiproliferative effects of TBIDOM (N-(4-(2,2,2-trifluoroethyl) benzylidene) (7-isopropyl-1,4a-dimethyl-1,2,3,4,4a,9,10,10a-octahydrophenanthren-1-yl) meth-anamine) and have explored its possible mechanisms on human hepatocellular carcinoma SMMC-7721 cells. The proliferative status of cells treated with TBIDOM was measured by the colorimetric MTT assay. Cellular apoptosis was analysed using Hoechst 33342 staining and flow cytometry. Reduction of mitochondrial membrane potential (Delta psi(m)) was also detected by flow cytometry. Western blotting assay was used to evaluate the release of cytochrome c and expression of p53, Bcl-2 and Bax proteins. It was shown that TBIDOM displayed a significant inhibitory effect on growth of SMMC-7721 cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner. Hoechst 33342 staining and flow cytometry analysis showed an increase of apoptosis rate and decrease of mitochondrial membrane potential after SMMC-7721 cells were exposed to TBIDOM for 24 h. Pretreatment of SMMC-7721 cells with TBIDOM significantly induced a decrease of Bcl-2 protein expression and an increase of caspase-3 activity and Bax protein expression. The results indicated that TBIDOM could effectively inhibit proliferation by induction of apoptosis and could be a promising candidate in the development of a novel class of antitumour agent.