Antitumor metastasis pregnane alkaloids from Pachysandra terminalis

Abstract

Three new pregnane alkaloids, named terminamines H–J (1–3), together with two known alkaloids (4 and 5), were isolated from the ethanol extract of Pachysandra terminalis. The structures of isolated compounds were elucidated by spectroscopic methods, including ¹H and ¹³C NMR, 2D NMR, and HR-ESI-MS. Compounds 1, 4, and 5 revealed significant anti-metastasis activities. In addition, compound 1 inhibited the expression of p-PKCζ in MDA-MB-231 cells, and compound 4 inhibited the expressions of p-PKCζ in MDA-MB-231 and A549 cells.

Keywords::

• Pachysandra terminalis
• pregnane alkaloids
• antitumor metastasis
• PKCζ

Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (81072540), Tianjin Research Program of Applied Basic and Cutting-edge Technologies (11JCZDJC20900), and Tianjin Higher Education Science and Technology Development Project (20130105).