New Chalcone Derivatives as Anticancer and Antioxidant Agents: Synthesis, Molecular Docking Study and Biological Evaluation

Abstract

In this approach, a series of new chalcone derivatives bearing baclofen drug were synthesized via Claisen-Schmidt condensation and evaluated in vitro as anticancer and antioxidant agents. The newly synthesized compounds were characterized by FT-IR, 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR spectra, and elemental analysis. All products were screened in vitro against both cell lines HdFn and MCF-7. The cytotoxicity assay results revealed that derivatives 5a and 5d exhibited good inhibition for cell lines MCF-7 with IC50 values 32.5 and 37.6 µM, respectively while 5a and 5c exhibited acceptable inhibition for HdFn with IC50 values 76.7 and 78.6 µM, respectively, compared to the Tamoxifen drug. Molecular docking study of the target compounds confirmed the results of the cytotoxicity test. In addition, results of the DPPH investigation revealed good antioxidant activity for derivatives 5a, 5c and 5d with inhibition percentages 86.62, 81.38, and 76.42%, respectively, compared to ascorbic acid.