Sesquiterpene lactones display a wide variety of biological effects such as
antiviral, antiinflammatory and cytotoxic activity. In previous studies so
me derivatives of sesquiterpene lactones were prepared to be tested as anti
viral and/or cytoxic agents. In the present report we describe the effects
of seven modified sesquiterpene lactones on the proliferation of several ca
ncer cell lines. We demonstrated antitumoral activity of two of them: III (
JLNZ-106) and IV (EDAG-IV-Sme) in HeLa, C-33, CALO, INBL, VIPA, SW480, SW62
0, MCF-7 and CHO cancer cell lines. Compounds III (JLNZ-106) and IV (EDAG-I
V-Sme-IV) presented cytotoxic activity (IC50) by inhibiting the incorporati
on of C-14-thymidine to DNA. These experiments suggest that derivatives III
and IV should inhibit DNA replication in cancer cell lines.