Synthesis and studies of acetylthioglycoside conjugates of 4-chloro-1,2-dithiole-3-thione as potential antitumor agents

Nucleophilic substitution of a chlorine atom in 4,5 dichloro-1,2-dithiole-3-thione with per-O-acetyl-1-mercaptho derivatives of d-glucose, d-galactose, d-mannose, d-xylose, l-arabinose, and d-maltose gave six new acetylthioglycoside conjugates of 4-chloro-1,2-dithiole-3-thione. These thioglycosides were shown to possess cancer preventive activity on the models of JB6 Cl41 P+ mouse epidermal cells and THP-1 human leukemia cells in soft agar, as well as to inhibit the AP-1-dependent transcriptional activity in JB6 Cl41 luc-AP-1 cells, which suggests the possibility of using the new compounds as potential cancer preventive drugs.