title: Synthesis and biological evaluation of 2,3'-diindolylmethanes as agonists of aryl hydrocarbon receptor.
abstract: Recent studies suggest that arylhydrocarbon receptor (AhR) may be a target for a number of diseases. Natural product malassezin is a AhR agonist with an interesting 2,3'-diindolylmethane skeleton. We have prepared a series of analogues of natural product malassezin using our recently developed method and tested the activity of these analogues against AhR in a cell-based assay. We found that a methyl substituent at 1'-N can significantly increase the activity and the 2-formyl group is not critical for some diindolylmethanes.
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy, University of Wisconsin, 777 Highland Avenue, Madison, WI 53705, United States.
authors.forename: Gabrielle N
authors.initials: GN
authors.lastname: Winston-McPherson
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy, University of Wisconsin, 777 Highland Avenue, Madison, WI 53705, United States; Department of Chemistry, University of Wisconsin, 1101 University Avenue, Madison, WI 53706, United States.
authors.forename: Dongxu
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Shu
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy, University of Wisconsin, 777 Highland Avenue, Madison, WI 53705, United States; Department of Chemistry, University of Wisconsin, 1101 University Avenue, Madison, WI 53706, United States. Electronic address: wtang@pharmacy.wisc.edu.
authors.forename: Weiping
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Tang
mesh_terms: D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D006801:Humans; D007211:Indoles / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology*; D015394:Molecular Structure; D018336:Receptors, Aryl Hydrocarbon / Q000819:agonists*; D013329:Structure-Activity Relationship
chemical_list: D007211:Indoles; D018336:Receptors, Aryl Hydrocarbon
keywords: Agonist; AhR; Diindolylmethane; Indole; Transcription factor