An N-acetylglucosaminide derivative with a pentaerythritol substituent at position C-6 was previously synthesized and shown to inhibit neural tumor growth. Now, we report the preparation of a series of new synthetic compounds introducing systematic changes in the nature, polarity, and size of the sugar substituents. The antimitotic activity of the new compounds was tested on cultured rat (C6) and human (U-373) glioma lines and on a human melanoma line (A-375). The antimitotic and antitumoral activity of the new compounds on glioma cell lines increased up to 2 orders of magnitude with respect to the parent compound or was abolished, permitting a detailed structure-function analysis of the new antitumorals. One of the glycosides inhibited melanoma division with an ID50 below the micromolar range.

Besides giving rise to oligodendrocytes (the only myelin-forming cell in the Central Nervous System (CNS) in physiological conditions), Oligodendrocyte Precursor Cells (OPCs) are responsible for spontaneous remyelination after a demyelinating lesion. They are present along the mouse and human CNS, both during development and in adulthood, yet how OPC physiological behavior is modified throughout life is not fully understood. The activity of adult human OPCs is still particularly unexplored. Significantly, most of the molecules involved in OPC-mediated remyelination are also involved in their development, a phenomenon that may be clinically relevant. In the present article, we have compared the intrinsic properties of OPCs isolated from the cerebral cortex of neonatal, postnatal and adult mice, as well as those recovered from neurosurgical adult human cerebral cortex tissue. By analyzing intact OPCs for the first time with 1H High Resolution Magic Angle Spinning Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (1H HR-MAS NMR) spectroscopy, we show that these cells behave distinctly and that they have different metabolic patterns in function for their stage of maturity. Moreover, their response to Fibroblast Growth Gactor-2 (FGF-2) and anosmin-1 (two molecules that have known effects on OPC biology during development and that are overexpressed in individuals with Multiple Sclerosis (MS)) differs in relation to their developmental stage and in the function of the species. Our data reveal that the behavior of adult human and mouse OPCs differs in a very dynamic way that should be very relevant when testing drugs and for the proper design of effective pharmacological and/or cell therapies for MS.

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