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.