RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Cancer is one of the major health and social-economic problems despite considerable progress in its early diagnosis and treatment. Owing to the emergence and increase of multidrug resistance to various conventional drugs, and the continuing importance of health-care expenditure, many researchers have focused on developing novel and effective anticancer compounds. OBJECTIVE: Chemical repositories provide a good platform to evaluate and exploit known chemical entities for the identification of other biological activities. In the present study, we have selected an in-house library of synthesized compounds based on two different pharmacophoric scaffolds to evaluate their cytotoxic potency on various cancer cell lines and mechanisms of action. METHODS: A series of in-house synthesized quinazoline and quinazolino-benzothiadiazine derivatives were investigated for their anticancer efficacy against a panel of five cancer (DU145, MCF7, HepG2, SKOV3 and MDA-MB-231) and one normal (MRC5) cell lines. Furthermore, the active compound of the study was investigated to elucidate the mechanism of cytotoxicity by performing series of experiments such as cell cycle analysis, inhibition of tubulin polymerization, alteration of mitochondrial membrane potential, determination of endocytic pathway for drug uptake pathway and combination drug treatment. RESULTS: Among all the tested compounds, fifteen of them exhibited promising growth-inhibitory effect (0.15- 5.0µM) and induced cell cycle arrest in the G2/M phase. In addition, the selected compounds inhibited the microtubule assembly; altered mitochondrial membrane potential and enhanced the levels of caspase-9 in MCF-7 cells. Furthermore, the active compound with a combination of drugs showed a synergistic effect at lower concentrations, and the drug uptake was mediated through clathrin-mediated endocytic pathway. CONCLUSION: Our results indicated that quinazoline and quinazolino-benzothiadiazine conjugates could serve as potential leads in the development of new anticancer agents.