Synteza i aktywność biologiczna pochodnych salinomycyny

Polyether ionophore antibiotics (ionophores) represent a large group of naturally- occurring lipid-soluble compounds isolated from actinomycetes strains of Streptomyces genus. Ionophores are able to form complexes with the metal cations, especially sodium and potassium, and transport them across the lipid membranes according to electroneutral or electrogenic transport mechanism. This process disturbs the intercellular Na+/K+ concentration gradient and intracellular pH, leads to the mitochondrial injuries, cell swelling, vacuolization and finally to programmed cell death (apoptosis). For this reason, ionophore antibiotics found commercial use in veterinary medicine as coccidiostatic agents and non-hormonal growth promoters. In addition to the industrial use of ionophores, some of them effectively and selectively inhibit properties of different cancer cells as well as enhance the anti-cancer effects of radio- and/or chemotherapy. In this group, particularly interesting is salinomycin because of its potent anti-microbial and anti-cancer activity, including efficiency against multi-drug resistant cancer cells and cancer stem cells. A very interesting direction of research is the chemical modification of ionophore antibiotics, which can lead to obtaining various derivatives with better biological activity and lower toxicity than those of the starting substances. Because biological activity of ionophore antibiotics and their derivatives is strictly connected with the ability to form characteristic pseudocyclic structures around the complexed cations (host-guest complex), it is also important to establish the detailed information on these structures. In this context, our review article is focused on the possible role of salinomycin and its derivatives in anti-microbial as well as anti-cancer therapy, and gives an overview of the properties of this antibiotic.