Aim: Quinic acid (QA) is a cyclic polyol exhibiting anticancer properties on several cancers. However, potential role of QA-derivatives against glioblastoma is not well established. Methodology & results: Sixteen novel QA-derivatives and QA-16 encapsulated poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid) nanoparticles (QA-16-NPs) were screened for their anti-glioblastoma effect using standard cell and molecular biology methods. Presence of a tertiary hydroxy and silylether groups in the lead compound were identified for the antitumor activity. QA-16 have 90% inhibition with the IC50 of 10.66 μM and 28.22 μM for LN229 and SNB19, respectively. The induction of apoptosis is faster with the increased fold change of caspase 3/7 and reactive oxygen species. Conclusion: QA-16 and QA-16-NPs shows similar cytotoxicity effect, providing opportunity to use QA-16 as a potential chemotherapeutic agent.

The installation of vicinal mesylate and silyl ether groups in a quinic acid derivative generates a system prone for stereoselective borane-catalyzed hydrosilylation through a siloxonium intermediate. The diversification of the reaction conditions allowed the construction of different defunctionalized fragments foreseen as useful synthetic fragments. The selectivity of the hydrosilylation was rationalized on the basis of deuteration experiments and computational studies.