Systematic synthesis of sulfated oligofucosides and their effect on breast cancer MCF-7 cells

Sulfated tetrafucosides 2-5 with different sulfation patterns, and a non-sulfated tetrafucoside 6, were designed and systematically synthesized from the common key intermediate 12. In addition, their anti-proliferative activities and apoptosis-inducing activities against human breast cancer MCF-7 cells were evaluated. Our results demonstrated that the sulfated tetrafucosides 2-4 reduced the number of MCF-7 cells in a dose-dependent manner, and of these, 3,4-O-sulfated type 4 showed the highest anti-proliferative activity, comparable to the activity of fucoidan 1 isolated from Fucus vesiculosus. Furthermore, it was revealed that both 1 and 4 exhibited apoptosis-inducing activities through activation of caspase-8 on MCF-7 cells.