Labelling of brassinosteroids by isotopes of hydrogen and carbon

Abstract

The brassinosteroids (BRs) are a class of native plant growth regulating substances with high biological activity even at very low concentration. These compounds have been rigorously explored and it has been found that they are not only growth regulators in plants but also promising antiviral agents. Recently, it has been reported that natural BRs exhibit relatively interesting anticancer activities. Up to now, the basic anticancer potential of BRs against several normal and human cancer cell lines has been determined. Natural BRs, at micromolar concentrations, impart cell growth-inhibitory responses in several human cancer cell lines without affecting the normal cells. To study the mechanism of action of BRs at the molecular level, the corresponding isotopically labelled compounds are essential. The latter BRs are essential for the investigation of biosynthesis, metabolism, transport and distribution in plants. This venture ultimately led us to explore the labeling of BRs by isotopes of hydrogen and carbon and the related technique to do this. The present review will shed light on the synthetic avenues in this field from the time of the discovery of labelled BRs up until their most recent advances.