Synthesis and in vitro antitumor activity of 2-alkyl, 2-aryl, and 2-piperazinyl benzimidazole-4,7-dione derivatives

Synthesis and biological evaluation of novel heterocyclic quinones as inhibitors of the dual specificity protein phosphatase CDC25C

A focused set of heterocyclic quinones based on the benzothiazole, benzoxazole, benzimidazole, indazole and isoindole was prepared and screened with respect to the inhibition of the phosphatase activity of CDC25C. Benzoxazole- and benzothiazole-diones were at least 50 times more potent in inhibiting CDC25C than their benzimidazole-indazole- or isoindole-dione counterparts. These in vitro activities were in good correlation with the anti-proliferative effects observed with Mia PaCa-2 and DU-145 human tumor cell cultures. The IC(50) values obtained by WST-1 colorimetric assay ranged from 0.10 to 0.50 microM for the benzoxazole- or benzothiazole-diones and were above 10 microM for the other heterocyclic diones. This study further illustrates how the activity of the quinone pharmacophore can be selectively modulated by changing the type of five-membered heterocycle fused to the quinone ring.

Biology of SNU cell lines

SNU (Seoul National University) cell lines have been established from Korean cancer patients since 1982. Of these 109 cell lines have been characterized and reported, i.e., 17 colorectal carcinoma, 12 hepatocellular carcinoma, 11 gastric carcinoma, 12 uterine cervical carcinoma, 17 B-lymphoblastoid cell lines derived from cancer patients, 5 ovarian carcinoma, 3 malignant mixed Mllerian tumor, 6 laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma, 7 renal cell carcinoma, 9 brain tumor, 6 biliary tract, and 4 pancreatic carcinoma cell lines. These SNU cell lines have been distributed to biomedical researchers domestic and worldwide through the KCLB (Korean Cell Line Bank), and have proven to be of value in various scientific research fields. The characteristics of these cell lines have been reported in over 180 international journals by our laboratory and by many other researchers from 1987. In this paper, the cellular and molecular characteristics of SNU human cancer cell lines are summarized according to their genetic and epigenetic alterations and functional analysis.