Synthesis and biological evaluation of 1-phenyl-4,6-dihydrobenzo[b]pyrazolo[3,4-d]azepin-5(1H)-one/thiones as anticancer agents.

Cancer is associated with uncontrolled cell proliferation invading adjoining tissues and organs. Despite the availability of several chemotherapeutic agents, the constant search for newer approaches and drugs is necessitated owing to the ever-growing challenge of resistance. Over the years, DNA has emerged as an important druggable therapeutic drug due to its role in critical cellular processes such as cell division and maintenance. Further, evading apoptosis stands out as a hallmark of cancer. Hence, designing new compounds that would target DNA and induce apoptosis plays an important role in cancer therapy. In the current work, we carried out the synthesis and anticancer evaluation of 1-aryl-4,6-dihydrobenzo[b]pyrazolo[3,4-d]azepin-5(1H)-ones/thiones (26 compounds) against selected human cancer cell lines. Among these, compounds 8ae, 8ad, 8cf, 10ad and Kenpaullone have shown good inhibitory properties against HeLa cells (IC50 < 2 µM) with good selectivity over the non-cancerous human embryonic kidney (Hek293T) cells. In cell cycle analysis, the compounds 8ad and 8cf have exhibited G2/M cell cycle arrest in HeLa cells. In addition, the compounds 8ad and 8cf induced apoptosis in a dose-dependent manner in the Annexin-V FITC staining assay. The DAPI staining clearly demonstrated the condensed and fragmented nuclei in 8ad, 8cf, 8ae and Kenpaullone-treated HeLa cells. In addition, these compounds strongly suppressed the healing after 48 h in in vitro cell migration assay. The DNA binding experiments indicated that compounds 8ae, 8cf, and 8ad as well as Kenpaullone interact with double-stranded DNA by binding in grooves which may interrupt the DNA replication and kill fast-growing cells. Molecular docking studies revealed the binding pose of 8ad and Kenpaullone at HT1 binding pocket of double-stranded DNA. Compounds 8ad and 8cf demonstrated moderate topo II inhibition which could be a possible reason for their anticancer properties. Compounds 8ad and 8cf may cause the topo II and DNA covalent complex, which leads to the inhibition of DNA replication and transcription. This eventually increases the DNA damage in cells and promotes cell apoptosis. With the above interesting biological profile, the new 1-aryl-2,6-dihydrobenzo[b]pyrazolo[3,4-d]azepin-5(4H)-one/thione derivatives have emerged as promising leads for the discovery of new anticancer agents.

Fused-azepinones: Emerging scaffolds of medicinal importance.

Hymenialdisine an alkaloid of oroidin class has drawn the attention of researchers owing to its unique structural features and interesting biological properties. Hymenialdisine exhibited promising inhibitory activity against a number of therapeutically important kinases viz., CDKs, GSK-3ß etc., and showed anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, anti-HIV, neuroprotective, anti-fouling, anti-plasmodium properties. Hymenialdisine and other structurally related oroidin alkaloids such as dibromo-hymenialdisine, stevensine, hymenin, axinohydantoin, spongicidines A-D, latonduines and callyspongisines contain pyrrolo[2,3-c] azepin-8-one core in common. Keeping in view of the interesting structural and therapeutic features of HMD, several structural modifications were carried around the fused-azepinone core which resulted in a number of diverse structural motifs like indolo-azepinones, paullones, aza-paullones, darpones and 5,7-dihydro-6H-benzo[b]pyrimido[4,5-d] azepin-6-one. In this review, an attempt is made to collate and review the structures of diverse hymenialdisine and related fused-azepinones of synthetic/natural origin and their biological properties.