Glycoglycerolipid analogues active as anti-tumor-promoters: the influence of the anomeric configuration

The in vitro anti-tumor promoting effect of monohexanoates of 2-O-α-D-gluco- and galactopyranosyl-sn-glycerol on the 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA) induced Epstein-Barr virus early antigen (EBV-EA) activation was evaluated and compared to the potencies of the corresponding β-anomers. The results show that the inversion of the anomeric configuration from β to α does not seem to significantly influence the activity, which is present, as for the β-anomers, even at 1 × 10 mol ratio without any cytotoxicity.