Evodiamine (Evo) is a quinazolinocarboline alkaloid found in Evodia rutaecarpa and exhibits moderate antiproliferative activity. Herein, we report using a scaffold-hopping approach to identify a series of novel polycyclic heterocyclic derivatives based on Evo as the topoisomerase I (Top1) inhibitor for the treatment of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), which is an aggressive subtype of breast cancer with limited treatment options. The most potent compound 7f inhibited cell growth in a human breast carcinoma cell line (MDA-MB-231) with an IC₅₀ value of 0.36 μM. Further studies revealed that Top1 was the target of 7f, which directly induced irreversible Top1–DNA covalent complex formation or induced an oxidative DNA lesion through an indirect mechanism mediated by reactive oxygen species. More importantly, in vivo studies showed that 7f exhibited potent antitumor activity in a TNBC-patient-derived tumor xenograft model. These results suggest that compound 7f deserves further investigation as a promising candidate for the treatment of TNBC.

中文翻译：

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从吴茱萸碱中发现新型多环杂环衍生物用于治疗三阴性乳腺癌

Evodiamine (Evo) 是一种在吴茱萸中发现的喹唑啉咔啉生物碱，具有中等的抗增殖活性。在此，我们报告了使用支架跳跃方法来鉴定一系列基于 Evo 的新型多环杂环衍生物作为拓扑异构酶 I (Top1) 抑制剂，用于治疗三阴性乳腺癌 (TNBC)，这是一种侵袭性乳腺癌亚型治疗选择有限的癌症。最有效的化合物7f抑制人乳腺癌细胞系 (MDA-MB-231) 中的细胞生长，IC ₅₀值为 0.36 μM。进一步的研究表明，Top1 是7f的目标，直接诱导不可逆的Top1-DNA共价复合物形成或通过活性氧介导的间接机制诱导氧化性DNA损伤。更重要的是，体内研究表明，7f在 TNBC 患者来源的肿瘤异种移植模型中表现出有效的抗肿瘤活性。这些结果表明，化合物7f作为治疗 TNBC 的有希望的候选者值得进一步研究。