Abstract
Glycosylation and fatty acid modification are promising strategies to improve peptide performance. We previously studied glycosylation and fatty acid modification of the anticancer peptide R-lycosin-I. In this study, we further investigated the co-modification of fatty acids and monosaccharides in R-lycosin-I. A glucose derivative was covalently coupled to the ε-amino group of the Lys residues of the lipopeptide R-C12, which was derived from R-lycosin-I modified with dodecanoic acid, and obtained seven glycolipid peptides. They exhibited different cytotoxicity profiles, which may be related to the changes in physicochemical properties and binding ability to glucose transporter 1 (GLUT1). Among them, R-C12-4 exhibited the highest cytotoxicity and improved selectivity. A further study demonstrated that R-C12-4 showed significant cytotoxicity and antimetastasis activity in murine melanoma cells, melanoma spheroids, and animal models. Our results indicated that the glucose derivative modification position plays important roles in glucose-lipopeptide conjugates, and R-C12-4 might be a promising lead for developing anticancer drugs.