Diastereoselective synthesis and anticancer potential of a small library of cage-like heterocyclic hybrids

Abstract

With an aim to construct novel anticancer drugs, a series of polycyclic heterocycles comprising diverse structural sub-units based on molecular hybridization strategy have been designed and synthesized through a three-component [3 + 2]-cycloaddition/annulation strategy. Anticancer evaluation of these compounds against MCF-7 and NCI-H460 cell lines revealed dose dependent reduction with noteworthy anticancer activity. Compound 4b inhibited MCF-7 and NCI-H460 cell lines with IC50 values 10.86 ± 0.94 and 9.17 ± 0.63 µM respectively. Further, apoptosis and cell cycle analysis revealed that this compound was able to prompt apoptosis at an early stage in MCF-7 cell line besides increasing the threshold of MMP and % of cells expressing FITC-dUTP. These results suggest that compound 4b is a potential molecule for the further exploration.

Keywords

• Cage-like heterocyclic hybrids
• Stereoselective synthesis
• MCF-7
• Flow cytometry
• Apoptosis
• JC1