The Cytotoxic Cardiac Glycoside (−)-Cryptanoside A from the Stems of Cryptolepis dubia and Its Molecular Targets

A cardiac glycoside epoxide, (−)-cryptanoside A (1), was isolated from the stems of Cryptolepis dubia collected in Laos, for which the complete structure was confirmed by analysis of its spectroscopic and single-crystal X-ray diffraction data, using copper radiation at a low temperature. This cardiac glycoside epoxide exhibited potent cytotoxicity against several human cancer cell lines tested, including HT-29 colon, MDA-MB-231 breast, OVCAR3 and OVCAR5 ovarian cancer, and MDA-MB-435 melanoma cells, with the IC₅₀ values found to be in the range 0.1-0.5 μM, which is comparable with that observed for digoxin. However, it exhibited less potent activity (IC₅₀ 1.1 μM) against FT194 benign/nonmalignant human fallopian tube secretory epithelial cells when compared with digoxin (IC₅₀ 0.16 μM), indicating its more selective activity toward human cancer versus benign/nonmalignant cells. (−)-Cryptanoside A (1) also inhibited Na⁺/K⁺-ATPase activity and increased the expression of Akt and the p65 subunit of NF-κB but did not show any effects on the expression of PI3K. A molecular docking profile showed that (−)-cryptanoside A (1) binds to Na⁺/K⁺-ATPase, and thus 1 may directly target Na⁺/K⁺-ATPase to mediate its cancer cell cytotoxicity.