Synthetic Small Molecules Derived from Natural Vitamin K Homologues that Induce Selective Neuronal Differentiation of Neuronal Progenitor Cells

We synthesized new vitamin K2 analogues with ω-terminal
modifications of the side chain and evaluated their selective differentiation
of neuronal progenitor cells into neurons in vitro. The result of
the assay showed that the menaquinone-3 analogue modified with the m-methylphenyl group had the most potent activity, which
was twice as great as the control. This finding indicated that it
is possible to obtain much more potent compounds with modification
of the structure of vitamin K2.