UV-B-induced corneal damage remains a challenge in clinics, and it is needed to develop novel and effective medicines against UV-B induced photodamage. 3,4-Dihydropyrimidine-2(1H)-thione derivatives have shown many interesting biological activities, including antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, etc. In order to find a promising anticorneal photodamage agent, we designed and synthesized two novel sulfonated dihydropyrimidinthione derivatives to evaluate cytoprotective effect against UV-B-mediated photodamage. With simple structure, compound 6 possessed good water solubility, photostability and biocompatibility. We demonstrated that 6 exhibited significant cytoprotective effects against UV-B-mediated photodamage and the cell viability was up to 93% at 0.2 mg mL-1 . The corneal cells were highly sensitive to UV-B radiation, resulting in the release of inflammatory mediators and DNA damage, which were significantly reversed by 6. Moreover, compound 6 reduced Bax and cleaved Caspase-3 expressions to suppress UV-B mediated the intrinsic apoptosis pathway. Our findings suggest that 6 is a promising UV-B resistant agent with potential to be a promising drug candidate for the treatment of corneal photodamage.
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