Novel diarylated tacrine derivatives: Synthesis, characterization, anticancer, antiepileptic, antibacterial, and antifungal activities

Abstract

In this study, our goal was to synthesize novel aryl tacrine derivatives and assess their potential as anticancer, antibacterial agents, and enzyme inhibitors. We adopted a two‐step approach, initiating with the synthesis of dibromotacrine derivatives 3 and 4 through the Friedlander reaction. These intermediates underwent further transformation into diarylated tacrine derivatives 3a–e and 4a–e using a Suzuki–Miyaura cross‐coupling reaction. Thorough characterization of these novel diarylated tacrines was achieved using various spectroscopic techniques. Our findings highlighted the potent anticancer effects of these innovative compounds across a range of cancer cell lines, including lung, gynecologic, bone, colon, and breast cancers, while demonstrating low cytotoxicity against normal cells. Notably, these compounds surpassed the control drug, 5‐Fluorouracil, in terms of antiproliferative activity in numerous cancer cell lines. Moreover, our investigation included an analysis of the inhibitory properties of these novel compounds against various microorganisms and cytosolic carbonic anhydrase enzymes. The results suggest their potential for further exploration as cancer‐specific, enzyme inhibitory, and antibacterial therapeutic agents. Notably, four compounds, namely, 5,7‐bis(4‐(methylthio)phenyl)tacrine (3d), 5,7‐bis(4‐(trifluoromethoxy)phenyl)tacrine (3e), 2,4‐bis(4‐(trifluoromethoxy)phenyl)‐7,8,9,10‐tetrahydro‐6H‐cyclohepta[b]quinolin‐11‐amine (4e), and 6,8‐dibromotacrine (3), emerged as the most promising candidates for preclinical studies.