Blue LED Induced Three Component Reactions for the Generation of 4,6-Dioxo-hexahydro-1H-furo[3, 4-c] pyrrole: Their Evaluation as Anticancer Agents through PARP-1 Inhibition.

Herein we report a catalyst, metal and additive free generation of carbonyl ylides by blue LED irradiation of aryl diazoacetates in presence of aldehydes. The resulting ylides underwent [3+2] cycloaddition with substituted maleimides present in the reaction mixture to afford 4, 6-dioxo-hexahydro-1H-furo[3, 4-c] pyrrole in excellent yields. Fifty compounds were synthesized based on this scaffold. Molecular docking indicated them to be potential poly ADP ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitor. Screening a representative member of the library against PARP-1 enzyme revealed a few potential inhibitors with IC50 of 600-700 nM. The phenotypic screening against MCF7, A549 and HepG2 cells furthermore indicated that these compounds selectively inhibit the proliferation of A549, HeLa and HepG2 cells with IC50 of 1-2 µM. The mechanism of action of the most active compound at the cellular level was investigated.