Since saponin’s antitumor potency is relatively weak, researchers focus on their semi-synthetic modification to obtain structures with higher potencies. With the same motivation, we prepared a cytotoxic sapogenol derivative (AG-08) from cycloastragenol. Our preliminary studies revealed that AG-08 induced primarily necrotic cell death along with autophagic inhibition. Furthermore, immunoblotting experiments demonstrated that AG-08 promoted cleavage of various proteins such as ATGs, p62, and PARP-1.
