Synthesis and pharmacological evaluation of 2,3-diphenyl acrylonitriles-bearing halogen as selective anticancer agents.

Eighteen novel 2,3-diphenyl acrylonitrile derivatives bearing halogens were designed, synthesized, and evaluated for biological activity. Preliminary in vitro results indicated that the majority of the compounds with a para-substituted halogen had considerable antiproliferative activity against five human cancer cell lines, including MGC-803, AGS, and BEL-7402, with IC50 values in the range of 0.46-100 µm. No significant toxic effects on the non-cancerous human liver cell line L-02 were observed. The selective inhibitory activities against cancer cells were significantly better than that of the control lead compound CA-4 and CA-4P. Particularly, potent activities were found for the derivatives of 3-(4-halogen phenyl)-2-(3,4,5-trimethoxyphenyl)acrylonitrile, such as 5c (4-fluoro), 5f (4-bromo), 5h (4-chloro), and 5k (4-trifluoro- methyl), for AGS with IC50 values of 0.75 ± 0.24, 0.68 ± 0.21, 0.41 ± 0.05, and 1.49 ± 0.92 µm, respectively. The antiproliferative effects of 5f were attributed to cell-cycle arrest in the G2 /M phase, induction of cellular apoptosis, suppression of cell migration, and inhibition of cell colony formation in AGS cells.