Cancer chemopreventive activity of acridone alkaloids on Epstein–Barr virus activation and two-stage mouse skin carcinogenesis

Seventeen acridone alkaloids isolated from the Rutaceous plants were tested for their inhibitory activities against Epstein–Barr virus early antigen activation induced by 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate in Raji cells. Some prenylated acridones were found to have remarkably potent activities. 1,3-Dihydroxy-10-methyl-2,4-diprenylacridone (18) as synthesized according to these results in vitro, exhibited a marked inhibitory effect on mouse skin tumor promotion in an in vivo two-stage carcinogenesis test. The result of the present investigation indicated that some of these acridone alkaloids may be potentially valuable cancer chemopreventive agents.