Anti-cancer effects of honokiol via mitochondrial dysfunction are strongly enhanced by the mitochondria-targeting carrier berberine

Mitochondrion is a favorable therapeutic target in cancer given its regulation of bioenergetics and cell death. Honokiol exhibits antiproliferative effects through mitochondria-mediated death signaling. To enhance its anticancer potential and selectivity, we conjugated honokiol to berberine, a mitochondria-targeting carrier. All designed derivatives displayed one order of magnitude increased cytotoxicity compared with the parent compounds, especially with massive cytoplasmic vacuoles. Biological evaluation demonstrated the representative compound 6b localized within the mitochondria and mitochondrial dilation resulted in vacuolization. 6b induced vacuolation-associated cell death and apoptosis with obvious mitochondrial dysfunction as demonstrated by booming reactive oxygen species generation, opening mitochondrial permeability transition pore and reducing mitochondrial membrane potential. The targeting property also conferred 6b selectivity for tumor cells compared to normal cells. 6b inhibited cancer cell proliferation in zebrafish xenograft model. These results demonstrate that berberine-linked honokiol derivatives open up a direction for novel mitochondrial targeting antitumor agents.