Synthesis and Antiproliferative Activity of Minor Hops Prenylflavonoids and New Insights on Prenyl Group Cyclization

Synthesis of minor prenylflavonoids found in hops and their non-natural derivatives were performed. The antiproliferative activity of the obtained compounds against some human cancer cell lines was investigated. Using xanthohumol isolated from spent hops as a lead compound, a series of minor hop prenylflavonoids and synthetic derivatives were obtained by isomerization, cyclisation, oxidative-cyclisation, oxidation, reduction and demethylation reactions. Three human cancer cell lines-breast (MCF-7), prostate (PC-3) and colon (HT-29)-were used in antiproliferative assays, with cisplatin as a control compound. Five minor hop prenyl flavonoids and nine non-natural derivatives of xanthohumol have been synthetized. Syntheses of xanthohumol K, its dihydro-and tetrahydro-derivatives and 1 '',2 '', alpha, beta-tetrahydroxanthohumol C were described for the first time. All of the minor hops prenyl flavonoids exhibited strong to moderate antiproliferative activity in vitro. The minor hops flavonoids xanthohumol C and 1 '',2 ''-dihydroxanthohumol K and non-natural 2,3-dehydroisoxanthohumol exhibited the activity comparable to cisplatin. Results described in the article suggest that flavonoids containing chromane-and chromene-like moieties, especially chalcones, are potent antiproliferative agents. The developed new efficient, regioselective cyclisation reaction of the xanthohumol prenyl group to 1 '',2 ''-dihydroxantohumol K may be used in the synthesis of other compounds with the chromane moiety.