Taurine, a metabolite that has been considered a biomarker of apoptosis, correlated with the reduction of tumor volume. Specifically, the activity of the compounds is mainly associated with an increase in choline and phosphocholine, in both the cell cultures and tumoral tissues. In vivo experiments in nude mice bearing tumors derived from implanted C6 glioma cells, showed that reduction of tumor volume was associated with significant changes in the metabolic profile of the same intact tumor tissues and were similar to those observed in cell culture. At the drug concentrations showing anti-proliferative activity in cell culture (20 and 40 µM), significant increases in choline containing metabolites were observed in the 1H NMR spectra of the same intact cells. Two compounds were used, a glycoside and its thioglycoside analogue, both showing anti-proliferative activity on glioma C6 cell cultures however, only the thioglycoside exhibited antitumor activity in vivo. The effect of the treatment with glycolipid derivatives on the metabolic profile of intact glioma cells and tumor tissues, investigated using proton high resolution magic angle spinning ( 1H HR-MAS) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, is reported here.

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