Photochemical synthesis, intercalation with DNA and antitumor evaluation in vitro of benzo[d]thiazolo[3,2-a]quinolin-10-ium derivatives.

A new anticancer benzo[d]thiazolo[3,2-a]quinolin-10-ium derivatives were synthesized and characterized. Anticancer evaluation in vitro against four cancer cell lines including adenocarcinomic human alveolar basal epithelial cells (A549), hepatocellular carcinoma (HepG2), prostate cancer (PC3) and breast cancer (MCF7) indicated that some of prepared compounds shows higher selectivity in comparison with doxorubicin. DNA interaction studies by optical, CD, NMR spectroscopies showed the high affinity of benzothiazole ligands towards the dsDNA. The ligand-DNA interaction occurs through the intercalation of benzo[d]thiazolo[3,2-a]quinolin-10-ium derivatives with nucleic acid. The investigation of formed ligand - DNA complexes by docking and molecular dynamic calculations was applied for analysis of the relationship between structure and anticancer activity. The results suggested that benzo[d]thiazolo[3,2-a]quinolin-10-ium derivatives might serve as a novel scaffold for the future development to new antitumor agents.

The regioselective [2 + 2] photocycloaddition reaction of 2-(3,4-dimethoxystyryl)quinoxaline in solution.

Herein, the [2 + 2] photocycloaddition between two molecules of (E)-2-(3,4-dimethoxystyryl)-quinoxaline (1) in an acetonitrile solution to form only one cyclobutane isomer out of eleven possible isomers is described. The observed photocycloaddition reaction is reversible; thus, the studied photocycloaddition reaction can be considered as a photoreversible photochromic process. The removal of two methoxy groups from the (E)-2-(3,4-dimethoxystyryl)quinoxaline (1) structure produces compound 2, which participates only in the photoisomerization reaction. The change of the quinoxaline residue in 1 to quinoline results in the formation of compound 3, which demonstrates the regioselective oxidization electrocyclic transformation through the formation of a novel C-N bond.