Abstract

Nine dimeric bile acid-amino acid conjugates as the mimic of cycle peptide and they have been synthesized in good yield and their structures were well confirmed by 1H NMR, 13C NMR and mass spectra. The ESI-MSn technique was used to probe the conformation of these molecules. The preliminary bioactivity tests showed that some of the title compounds could inhibit the growth of human breast cancer cell MCF-7. The antitumor activity probably derived from the unique sandwich-type amphiphilic conformation.

Keywords: Bile acid, amphiphile, electrospray mass spectrometry, cytotoxic activity