2. Academic Validation
  3. Design, synthesis and biological evaluation of arylcinnamide hybrid derivatives as novel anticancer agents

Design, synthesis and biological evaluation of arylcinnamide hybrid derivatives as novel anticancer agents

  • Eur J Med Chem. 2014 Jun 23:81:394-407. doi: 10.1016/j.ejmech.2014.05.028.
Romeo Romagnoli 1,  Pier Giovanni Baraldi 2,  Maria Kimatrai Salvador 3,  Mariem Chayah 3,  M Encarnacion Camacho 3,  Filippo Prencipe 3,  Ernest Hamel 4,  Francesca Consolaro 5,  Giuseppe Basso 5,  Giampietro Viola 6
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche e Farmaceutiche, Via Fossato di Mortara 17, Università di Ferrara, 44121 Ferrara, Italy. Electronic address: rmr@unife.it.
  • 2 Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche e Farmaceutiche, Via Fossato di Mortara 17, Università di Ferrara, 44121 Ferrara, Italy. Electronic address: pgb@unife.it.
  • 3 Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche e Farmaceutiche, Via Fossato di Mortara 17, Università di Ferrara, 44121 Ferrara, Italy.
  • 4 Screening Technologies Branch, Developmental Therapeutics Program, Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis, Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Frederick, MD 21702, USA.
  • 5 Dipartimento di Salute della Donna e del Bambino, Laboratorio di Oncoematologia, Università di Padova, 35131 Padova, Italy.
  • 6 Dipartimento di Salute della Donna e del Bambino, Laboratorio di Oncoematologia, Università di Padova, 35131 Padova, Italy. Electronic address: giampietro.viola1@unipd.it.
PMID: 24858544 DOI: 10.1016/j.ejmech.2014.05.028
Abstract

The combination of two pharmacophores into a single molecule represents one of the methods that can be adopted for the synthesis of new Anticancer molecules. A series of novel antiproliferative agents designed by a pharmacophore hybridization approach, combining the arylcinnamide skeleton and an α-bromoacryloyl moiety, was synthesized and evaluated for its antiproliferative activity against a panel of seven human Cancer cell lines. In addition, the new derivatives were also active on multidrug-resistant cell lines over-expressing P-glycoprotein. The biological effects of various substituents on the N-phenyl ring of the benzamide portion were also described. In order to study the possible mechanism of action, we observed that 4p slightly increased the Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) production in HeLa cells, but, more importantly, a remarkable decrease of intracellular reduced glutathione content was detected in treated cells compared with controls. These results were confirmed by the observation that only thiol-containing Antioxidants were able to significantly protect the cells from induced cell death. Altogether our results indicate that the new derivatives are endowed with good Anticancer activity in vitro, and their properties may result in the development of new Cancer therapeutic strategies.

Keywords

Apoptosis; GSH depletion; In vitro antiproliferative activity; Michael acceptor; Oxidative stress; Phenylcinnamides.

Figures