RESUMEN
The chemical investigation on Corydalis balansae resulted in the isolation of three previous undescribed compounds (1, 10, and 11) and 17 known compounds. Compound 1 and 2 were obtained as two lignanamide dimers, and compound 11 had a spiro [benzofuranone-benzazepine] skeleton, which was found in Corydalis for the first time. The structures of new compound were determined by the detailed analysis of 1D/2D NMR, UV, and IR data. Absolute configurations of compounds 10 and 11 were defined by their crystal X-ray diffraction data and calculations of electronic circular dichroism (ECD). The CCK-8 method was used to assay the inhibition effect of all the compounds on the growth of Hela, MGC-803, A549, and HepG2 cancer cells. Compound 2, 13, and 14 showed moderate inhibitory activity against the tested cell lines. Compound 2 exhibited potential antitumor activity against MGC-803 cells with an IC50 value of 20.8 µM, while the positive control etoposide was 17.3 µM. Furthermore, results from the cellular-mechanism investigation indicated that compound 2 could induce S-phase cell-cycle arrest and MGC-803 cells apoptosis, which was triggered by the up-regulation of PARP1, caspase-3 and -9, Bax, and down-regulation of Bcl-2. The 2-induced strong apoptosis indicated that compound 2 had good potential as an antitumor lead compound.