Minnelide

Minnelide is a prodrug of triptolide that shows potent antitumor activity in a number of tumor types, particularly in pancreatic cancer. Minnelide promotes apoptosis^[1]. In Vitro:Minnelide (0-200 nM; 48 hours) shows significantly decreased cell viability in pancreatic cancer cell lines after treatment in the presence, but not in the absence, of phosphatase^[2].
In Vivo:Minnelide (injection intraperitoneally; 0.1-0.6 mg/kg; once daily or twice daily) leads to a marked decrease in tumor weight and volume at the end of treatment and increases survival in orthotopic model of pancreatic cancer with MIA PaCa-2–derived human pancreatic tumors^[2].
Minnelide (injection intraperitoneally; 0.42 mg/kg; once daily; 28 days) prevents locoregional spread and leads to a decrease in average tumor weight in a xenograft model of pancreatic cancer with metastatic S2-013 cells^[2].
Minnelide (injection intraperitoneally; 0.42 mg/kg, 0.21 mg/kg; once daily) causes tumor regression and tumors from Minnelide-treated animals showed fibrosis and the presence of pyknotic nuclei in human pancreatic cancer xenografts in SCID mice^[2].