Iodine catalyzed simple and efficient synthesis of antiproliferative 2-pyridones.

A simple and efficient method for the selective synthesis of 2-pyrdones from 4H-pyrans using iodine as catalyst and ethanol as solvent was developed. The present method is equally effective for both aromatic and hetero aromatic ring containing 4H-pyrans. The compatibility with various functional groups, mild reaction conditions, high yields and application of inexpensive, readily and easily available iodine as catalyst and formation of 2-pyridones as major products are the advantages of the present procedure. In vitro antiproliferative activity of the final synthesized compounds was evaluated with four different human cancer cell lines (Lung adenocarcinoma-A549, Hepatocarcinoma-HepG2, Breast carcinoma-MCF-7 and Ovarian carcinoma-SKOV3) and normal human lung fibroblast cell line (MRC-5). Compounds 2b showed better inhibition against MCF-7, HepG2 and A549 cell lines (IC50 8.00 ± 0.11, 11.93 ± 0.01 and 15.85 ± 0.04 µM, respectively) as compared with doxorubicin and also 2e showed moderate inhibition against MCF-7, HepG2 (IC50 9.32 ± 0.21 and 20.22 ± 0.01 µM, respectively, cell lines, respectively) as compared with doxorubicin. As many clinically used antiproliferative agents induce apoptosis in cancer cells hence, the 2-pyridone analogues were also tested for their ability to induce apoptosis in MCF-7 cells using the caspases-3 and -9 assays.

Synthesis and evaluation of anticancer and antiobesity activity of 1-ethoxy carbonyl-3,5-bis (3'-indolyl methylene)-4-pyperidone analogs.

A series of eleven novel bisindole derivatives were synthesized and screened for anticancer and antiobesity potentials in in vitro mode. The reaction of 1-ethoxy carbonyl 4-pyperidone 1a with indole-3-carboxaldehyde 1b in presence of catalytic amount of piperidine gave 2 which was N-alkylated with different benzyl halides in the presence of potassium carbonate to afford compounds 3a-3k in quantitative yields. Among the compounds tested for anticancer activity against different human cancer cell lines, 3f significantly inhibited HepG2 cell line (IC50 7.33 µM) when compared with standard doxorubicin (IC50 10.15 µM). Compounds 3e (IC50 2.75 µM), 3f (IC50 4.21 µM) and 3i (IC50 15.98 µM) showed better activity than the standard curcumin (IC50 23.54 µM) against A549 cell line. Also, among the synthesized compounds, 3g (IC50 14.89 µM), 3c (IC50 56.41 µM) and 3i (IC50 30.88 µM) have potentially inhibited enzyme lipase when compared to standard Orlistat (IC50 62.25 µM). In in silico docking assays, piperidones 3e, 3f, 3i, 3c and 3a showed higher binding affinity towards anti-cancer target of A549 (3e: -11.1, 3f: -10.3, 3c: -11.3, 3i: -11.2 kcal/mol), HepG2 (3f: -10.5 kcal/mol), HeLa (3d: -10.0 kcal/mol) and SKOV3 (3f: -8.4 kcal/mol) cell lines better than standard drug doxorubicin. Docking to lipase protein for compounds 3i, 3g and 3c showed scores of -11.1, -10.7 and -10.5 kcal/mol when compared to that of standard drug Orlistat with -6.9 kcal/mol.