Anticancer Vitamin K3 Analogs: A Review

Menadione (Vitamin K3) comprises of 1,4-naphthoquinone (NQ) moiety that can form redox isomers such as napthosemiquinone (NSQ) and catechol by accepting one or two electrons, respectively. The quinone redox cycling ability leads to the generation of "reactive oxygen species" (ROS) as well as arylation reactions, which are of biological relevance. This ability can be modulated with the help of suitable derivatization. A pharmacophore can be appended at suitable position of Vitamin K3 to have a synergistic or additive effect. In the present review, an attempt has been made to accrue such derivatives modified at 1 or 2 position and evaluated for their cytotoxicity activity on different series of human cancer cell lines such as HeLa, HL-60 and MCF- 7 etc. Production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and mitochondrial dysfunction caused by Vitamin K3 derivatives leads to apoptosis and tumor inhibition. Recently, the CR-108 compound has shown to exhibit oxidative path together with non-oxidative phosphorylation of p38 MAP kinase in human breast cancer cells. Thus the chemical-biological interactions have been discussed which can be further extrapolated for the development of a potent anticancer drug.