Synthesis, in-vitro screening, and docking analysis of novel pyrrolidine and piperidine-substituted ethoxy chalcone as anticancer agents

Ultrasonic-induced synthesis of novel diverse arylidenes via Knoevenagel condensation reaction. Antitumor, QSAR, docking and DFT assessment

A series of arylidenes derivatives was synthesized under ultrasonic methodology via Knoevenagel condensation reaction of cyanoacetohydrazide derivative with the appropriate aldehydes and/or ketone. The anticancer properties of the newly synthesized compounds were tested against four different human cancer cell lines (HEPG-2, MCF-7, HCT-116, and PC-3); compounds 5d and 6 demonstrated the greatest anticancer activity against all cancer cell lines. The MLR technique was used to create the QSAR model using five molecular descriptors (AATS6p, AATS7p, AATS8p, AATS0i, and SpMax4_Bhv). The examination of the constructed QSAR model equations revealed that the selected descriptors influence the tested compound's anti-proliferative activity. The descriptors identified in this work by QSAR models can be utilized to predict the anticancer activity levels of novel arylidenes derivatives. This will allow for significant cost savings in the drug development process and synthesis at pharmaceutical chemistry laboratories. According to the physicochemical properties, the results revealed that all of these compounds comply with Lipinski's Rule of Five, indicating that they may have high permeability across biological membranes and reveal drug-relevant properties. The Swiss Target Prediction webtool was used to assess the probable cellular mechanism for the promising candidate compounds (5d and 6), and the results revealed that adenosine A1 receptor (ADORA1) was a common target for both compounds. ADORA1 is involved in the regulation of cell metabolism and gene transcription. ADORA1 overexpression has been linked to a variety of cancers, including colon cancer, breast cancer, leukemia, and melanoma. The docking study of tested compounds 5d and 6 revealed that their binding scores to ADORA1 are more favorable than those of its co-crystalized ligand (DU172, selective ADORA1 antagonist) and adenosine (ADORA1 endogenous agonist), implying that they may hold great promise as an anti-cancer therapy. Density functional theory (DFT) with a (B3LYP)/6-31G (d,p) basis set was used to calculate the physicochemical parameters of these compounds. The theoretical data from the DFT computation was found to be in good agreement with the experimental values.

Chalcone: A Promising Bioactive Scaffold in Medicinal Chemistry

Chalcones are a class of privileged scaffolds with high medicinal significance due to the presence of an α,β-unsaturated ketone functionality. Numerous functional modifications of chalcones have been reported, along with their pharmacological behavior. The present review aims to summarize the structures from natural sources, synthesis methods, biological characteristics against infectious and non-infectious diseases, and uses of chalcones over the past decade, and their structure–activity relationship studies are detailed in depth. This critical review provides guidelines for the future design and synthesis of various chalcones. In addition, this could be highly supportive for medicinal chemists to develop more promising candidates for various infectious and non-infectious diseases.

Chalcones as Anti-Glioblastoma Stem Cell Agent Alone or as Nanoparticle Formulation Using Carbon Dots as Nanocarrier

The current prognosis for glioblastoma is dismal. Treatment-resistant glioblastoma stem cells (GSCs) and the failure of most drugs to reach therapeutic levels within the tumor remain formidable obstacles to successful treatment. Chalcones are aromatic ketones demonstrated to reduce malignant properties in cancers including glioblastoma. Nanomedicines can increase drug accumulation and tumor cell death. Carbon-dots are promising nanocarriers that can be easily functionalized with tumor-targeting ligands and anti-cancer drugs. Therefore, we synthesized a series of 4′-amino chalcones with the rationale that the amino group would serve as a “handle” to facilitate covalent attachment to carbon-dots and tested their cytotoxicity toward GSCs. We generated 31 chalcones (22 4′-amino and 9 4′ derivatives) including 5 novel chalcones, and found that 13 had an IC₅₀ below 10 µM in all GSC lines. After confirming that the 4-amino group was not part of the active pharmacophore, chalcones were attached to transferrin-conjugated carbon-dots. These conjugates were significantly more cytotoxic than the free chalcones, with the C-dot-transferrin-2,5, dimethoxy chalcone conjugate inducing up to 100-fold more GSC death. Several of the tested chalcones represent promising lead compounds for the development of novel anti-GSC drugs. Furthermore, designing amino chalcones for carbon-dot mediated drug delivery is a rational and effective methodology.

Compounds Removed from the Condensation Reaction between 2-acetylpyridine and 2-formylpyridine. Synthesis, Crystal Structure and Biological Evaluation

The research is devoted to the study of unexpected products that formed as a result of the condensation reaction between 2-acetylpyridine and 2-formylpyridine under the Claisen-Schmidt reaction conditions. As a result, a sequence of reactions leading to the following compounds has been proposed: 1,3-bis (pyridin-2-yl) prop-2-en-1-one (3); 1,3,5-tri (pyridin-2-yl) pentane-1,5-dione (4); (2,4-dihydroxy-2,4,6-tri(pyridin-2-yl)cyclohexyl)(pyridin-2-yl)methanone (5) and (4-hydroxy-2,4,6-tri(pyridin-2-yl)cyclohexane-1,3-diyl)bis(pyridin-2-ylmethanone) (6) as well as 2-formylpyridine (1) and 2-acetylpyridine (2). The plausible mechanism mechanism of these chemical transformations has been proposed. All the obtained compounds demonstrate moderate antimicrobial, antifungal and antioxidant activity.

Chalcone hybrids as potential anticancer agents: Current development, mechanism of action, and structure-activity relationship

The continuous emergency of drug-resistant cancers and the low specificity of anticancer agents have been the major challenges in the control and treatment of cancer, making an urgent need to develop novel anticancer agents with high efficacy. Chalcones, precursors of flavonoids and isoflavonoids, exhibit structural heterogeneity and can act on various drug targets. Chalcones which demonstrated potential in vitro and in vivo activity against both drug-susceptible and drug-resistant cancers, are useful templates for the development of novel anticancer agents. Hybridization of chalcone moiety with other anticancer pharmacophores could provide the hybrids which have the potential to overcome drug resistance and improve the specificity, so it represents a promising strategy to develop novel anticancer agents. This review emphasizes the development, the mechanisms of action as well as structure-activity relationships of chalcone hybrids with potential therapeutic application for many cancers in recent 10 years.

Synthesis and evaluation of the antiproliferative activity of benzylidenes of 16-dehydroprogesterone series

Novel benzylidenes (chalcones) of the 16-dehydroprogesterone series have been characterized and their antitumor activity against two breast cancer cell lines was evaluated. Benzylidenes exhibit significant antiproliferative effect on cells and inhibit cell growth in hormone-dependent MCF-7 and hormone-independent MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cell lines. Compound 3d exhibits the highest activity against two breast cancer cell lines, with the IC₅₀ value of about 2 µM. Compounds 3e,m,n display considerable selectivity for hormone-dependent breast cancer cells, with the IC₅₀ value lower than 6 µM. Moreover, these steroidal benzylidenes regulate ERα signaling and reveal p53-independent mechanism of pro-apoptotic action in MCF-7 cells. The new class of antitumor compounds holds promise as the basis for the design of agents for cancer therapy.

Tertiary amine derivatives of chlorochalcone as acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and buthylcholinesterase (BuChE) inhibitors: the influence of chlorine, alkyl amine side chain and α,β-unsaturated ketone group

A new series of tertiary amine derivatives of chlorochalcone (4a∼4l) were designed, synthesized and evaluated for the effect on acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and buthylcholinesterase (BuChE). The results indicated that all compounds revealed moderate or potent inhibitory activity against AChE, and some possessed high selectivity for AChE over BuChE. The structure–activity investigation showed that the substituted position of chlorine significantly influenced the activity and selectivity. The alteration of tertiary amine group also leads to obvious change in bioactivity. Among them, IC₅₀ of compound 4l against AChE was 0.17 ± 0.06 µmol/L, and the selectivity was 667.2 fold for AChE over BuChE. Molecular docking and enzyme kinetic study on compound 4l suggested that it simultaneously binds to the catalytic active site (CAS) and peripheral anionic site (PAS) of AChE. Further study showed that the pyrazoline derivatives synthesized from chlorochalcones had weaker activity and lower selectivity in inhibiting AChE compared to that of chlorochalcone derivatives.

Synthesis, Characterization, and Anticancer Activity of New Benzofuran Substituted Chalcones

Benzofuran derivatives are of great interest in medicinal chemistry and have drawn considerable attention due to their diverse pharmacological profiles including anticancer activity. Similarly, chalcones, which are common substructures of numerous natural products belonging to the flavonoid class, feature strong anticancer properties. A novel series of chalcones, 3-aryl-1-(5-bromo-1-benzofuran-2-yl)-2-propanones propenones (3a–f), were designed, synthesized, and characterized.In vitroantitumor activities of the newly synthesized (3a–f) and previously synthesized (3g–j) chalcone compounds were determined by using human breast (MCF-7) and prostate (PC-3) cancer cell lines. Antitumor properties of all compounds were determined by 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. Cell viability assay for the tested chalcone compounds was performed and thelog⁡IC50values of the compounds were calculated after 24-hour treatment. Our results indicate that the tested chalcone compounds show antitumor activity against MCF-7 and PC-3 cell lines (p<0.05).