Synthesis, structure–activity relationship, and biological evaluation of quinolines for development of anticancer agents

Abstract

Tetrahydro‐β‐carbolines (THβCs) are a kind of natural alkaloids with multiple pharmaceutical activities. Herein, a focused compound library derived from THβCs was synthesized and their anticancer activities were studied in several cancer cell lines. Among them, three compounds showed considerable anticancer activities with low micromolar to submicromolar IC50 values. The abilities to induce apoptosis and alter mitochondrial membrane potential levels, which are comparable to those of the commercial anticancer drug adriamycin, were confirmed by one representative compound (21) on the B16/F10 cell line. Our preliminary structure–activity relationship studies indicated that alkylamines with suitable lengths are very important for potency improvement.

Increased Free Radical Generation during the Interaction of a Quinone-Quinoline Chelator with Metal Ions and the Enhancing Effect of Light

“…The chelating center of Q1 comprises the nitrogen of the quinoline part, which acts as a Schiff base, and the adjacent oxygen of the quinone. Quinoline and its derivatives have wide biological and pharmacological applications, including anticancer and antimicrobial activity [ 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 ]. Similar diverse activity has also been shown by transition and other metal complexes of quinoline and its derivatives, such as 8-hydroxyquinoline ( Figure 1 ) [ 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 ].…”