Abstract:
Costunolide, a natural germacranolide sesquiterpenoid, exhibits only moderate anti-HCC activity. To enhance its efficacy and tumor selectivity, a series of 37 dimeric costunolide-1,2,3-triazole conjugates was designed and synthesized by integrating dimerization and molecular hybridization strategies. Evaluation of their antiproliferative effects on HepG2, Huh-7, and SK-Hep-1 cells suggested that 25 compounds were more potent than either costunolide or sorafenib. The most active dimer
19 exhibited significant activity with IC
50 values of 1.6, 1.3, and 0.7 μmol·L
−1, which were 13.1, 14.2, and 34.9-fold greater than those of costunolide. Compound
19 showed favorable selectivity against human normal liver cells (THLE-2) and markedly inhibited colony formation. Through a combination of bioinformatics, docking, and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) was identified as a target of compound
19, which was subsequently validated by DARTS and SPR assays. Functional studies revealed that compound
19 arrested the HCC cell cycle at the G
2/M phase, suppressed migration and invasion by inhibiting epithelial-mesenchymal transition, and triggered both apoptosis and ferroptosis. These findings establish triazole-linked costunolide dimer
19 as a promising lead candidate for the development of novel anti-HCC therapies.