STUDIES WITH PLANT-CELL CULTURES OF THE CHINESE HERBAL PLANT, TRIPTERYGIUM-WILFORDII - SYNTHESIS AND BIOTRANSFORMATION OF DITERPENE ANALOGS

Synthetic routes to a series of diterpene analogues from dehydroabieti c acid (1) are presented. These synthetic compounds are then utilized as substrates in biotransformation experiments with the cells of a sta ble cell line (coded as TRP4a) of the Chinese herbal plant, Tripterygi um wilfordii. The enzyme-catalyzed conversions of the substrate, isotr iptophenolide (12), afford a series of novel diterpene analogues to be evaluated in pharmacological screening programs as antineoplastic and immunosuppressive agents. Of particular interest are the quinone epox ides (14) and (15) for comparison with the highly active diterpene tri epoxides, triptolide and tripdiolide. Some screening data obtained wit h the latter compounds and relating to their anticancer and immunosupp ressive activity are also presented.