Metrics & MoreArticle Recommendations * sı Supporting Information ABSTRACT: (+)-Digoxin ( 1) is a well-known cardiac glycoside long used to treat congestive heart failure and found more recently to show anticancer activity. Several known cardenolides (2−5) and two new analogues, (+)-8(9)-β-anhydrodigoxigenin ( 6) and (+)-17-epi-20,22-dihydro-21α-hydroxydigoxin (7), were synthesized from 1 and evaluated for their cytotoxicity toward a small panel of human cancer cell lines. A preliminary structure−activity relationship investigation conducted indicated that the C-12 and C-14 hydroxy groups and the C-17 unsaturated lactone unit are important for 1 to mediate its cytotoxicity toward human cancer cells, but the C-3 glycosyl residue seems to be less critical for such an effect. Molecular docking profiles showed that the cytotoxic 1 and the noncytotoxic derivative 7 bind differentially to Na + /K + -ATPase. The HO-12β, HO-14β, and HO-3′aα hydroxy groups of (+)-digoxin (1) may form hydrogen bonds with the side-chains of Asp121 and Asn122, Thr797, and Arg880 of Na + /K + -ATPase, respectively, but the altered lactone unit of 7 results in a rotation of its steroid core, which depotentiates the binding between this compound and Na + /K + -ATPase. Thus, 1 was found to inhibit Na + /K + -ATPase, but 7 did not. In addition, the cytotoxic 1 did not affect glucose uptake in human cancer cells, indicating that this cardiac glycoside mediates its cytotoxicity by targeting Na + /K + -ATPase but not by interacting with glucose transporters.

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