Emetine is a natural product alkaloid with protein synthesis inhibitory activity. It is known to have a number of medicinal properties including anti-parasitic and anticancer activities. However, extreme toxicity including cardiotoxicity rendered it clinically unsafe as a drug. Our research group has been involved with the re-engineering of emetine to obtain a therapeutically useful anticancer agent that eliminates or significantly reduce the undesirable toxic side effects associated with emetine. To this end we have pursued the design, synthesis and biological evaluation of several analogs and prodrugs of emetine and studied their anticancer properties in prostate and breast cancer cell lines. An overview of our strategy, studies and results to date will be presented.

Re-engineering the natural product, emetine, towards achieving a therapeutically useful drug

254th National Meeting (2017)

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