Synthesis of novel ß-carboline based chalcones with high cytotoxic activity against breast cancer cells.

ABSTRACT

A series of novel ß-carboline based chalcones was synthesized and evaluated for their cytotoxic activity against a panel of human cancer cell lines. Among them we found that two of the compounds 7c and 7d, showed marked anti-proliferative activity in a panel of solid tumor cell lines with highest effect in breast cancer. The compounds 7c and 7d showed an IC50 of 2.25 and 3.29 µM, respectively against human breast cancer MCF-7 cell line. Further, the compound 7c markedly induced DNA fragmentation and apoptosis in breast cancer cells.