Protecting group-free radical decarboxylation of bile acids: Synthesis of novel steroidal substituted maleic anhydrides and maleimides and evaluation of their cytotoxicity on C6 rat glioma cells

•The first Barton radical decarboxylation of unprotected bile acids.•The synthesis a series of steroidal maleic anhydrides and maleimides as novel hybrid bile acids.•The Cytotoxic activity against C6 rat glioma cells of the new steroidal maleic anhydrides and maleimides was evaluated.

We report the first Barton radical decarboxylation of unprotected bile acids via in situ irradiation of their thiohydroxamic esters in the presence of citraconic anhydride and citracoimide, leading to the synthesis a series of steroidal maleic anhydrides and maleimides as novel hybrid bile acids. The cytotoxic activities were evaluated on C6 rat glioma cells.

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