Synthesis of natural-derived polyphenols as potential anticancer agents

Abstract

Extracts from plants or other organisms have been used for thousands of years as medicines and today a multitude of researchers continue to be inspired by the astonishing structural variety of natural products to identify potential lead compounds for drug discovery. In the simplest of terms, a natural product is a small molecule (generally with a molecular weight below 3000 Da) that is produced by a biological source; often the term is considered as synonymous for secondary metabolite and natural products research focuses on the biosynthesis and the study of chemical properties and biological functions of secondary metabolites. These are organic compounds not ubiquitous in all organisms, and represent an expression of the individuality of the species; secondary metabolites do not exert primary biological functions directly involved in the normal growth, development or reproduction of an organism but they may serve as chemical defense, intra- or interspecies communication, sexual attraction and to other purposes conferring an advantage to the organism producing them. The main families of secondary metabolites include isoprenoids, polyketides, alkaloids, non ribosomial peptides and polyphenols, these latter directly derived from shikimate pathway, as phenylpropanoids and lignans, or from a mixed biosynthetic pathway (shikimate/ acetate and/or malonate pathways), as stilbenoids or flavonoids.

My thesis is devoted to the family of polyphenols with the specific goal of synthesize new natural-derived polyphenols compounds and study their chemical and biological properties.