A lactosylated steroid contributes in vivo therapeutic benefits in experimental models of mouse lymphoma and human glioblastoma.

Various mono- and disaccharides were grafted onto a steroid backbone. Whereas in vitro these glycosylated steroids had no cytotoxic effects on six different human cancer cell lines, several of the glycosylated steroids under study did significantly modify the levels of in vitro migration of the human U373 glioblastoma, the A549 non-small-cell-lung cancer (NSCLC), and the PC-3 prostate cancer cells, with more pronounced effects in the case of a monosubstituted beta-L-fucopyranosyl-steroid (19), a monosubstituted beta-D-isomaltosyl-steroid (22), and a monosubstituted beta-D-lactosyl-steroid (24). These three compounds significantly increased the survival of conventional mice grafted subcutaneously with the P388 lymphoma, a lymphoma that metastasizes toward the liver. In vivo, the monosubstituted beta-D-lactosyl-steroid (24) also increased the antitumor effectiveness of cisplatin, a cytotoxic pro-apoptotic drug, in the case of the P388 lymphoma model. This compound also increased the survival of immunodeficient mice into whose brains human U373 glioblastoma cells had been orthotopically grafted.