Synthesis of Idebenonyl Ester Prodrugs and Their Evaluation of Cancer Cells In Vitro

Abstract

Esterification of idebenone with commercially available straight‐chain aliphatic acids, branched‐chain aliphatic acids, aromatic acids, or nonsteroidal anti‐inflammatory drugs afforded their corresponding idebenonyl esters (5a–k) in good yield. The values of cell viability for RC‐58T cell at 50 μM were 86.3% for 5a, 75.9% for 5b, 23.4% for 5d, 61.2% for 5f, 67.9% for 5h, 70.6% for 5i, and 49.0% for 5j.