Novel anti-cancer agents based on germacrone: design, synthesis, biological activity, docking studies and MD simulations

Germacrone is a major activity component found in Curcuma zedoaria oil product, which is extracted from Curcuma zedoaria . In the present study, novel germacrone derivatives were first designed based on the theories of bioalkylating agents, synthesized, and then investigated for their inhibition effects on Bel-7402, HepG2, A549, and HeLa cells. Moreover, the study also evaluated the inhibition of these derivatives on c-Met kinase, which is expressed in a number of cancers. The results indicated that most of the compounds showed a stronger inhibitory effect on cancer cells and c-Met kinase than germacrone. Besides these findings, molecular docking studies were also carried out to analyze the results and explain the molecular mechanism of activities to c-Met kinase. Molecular dynamics simulations have been carried out for the further evaluation of binding stabilities between the compounds and their receptors.