Synthesis and Cytotoxic Activity of Biphenylurea Derivatives Containing Indolin-2-one Moieties

In our endeavor towards the development of potent anticancer agents, two different sets of biphenylurea-indolinone conjugates, 5a-s and 8a,b were synthesized. The in vitro cytotoxicity of the synthesized compounds was examined in two human cancer cell lines, namely MCF-7 breast cancer and PC-3 prostate cancer cells using the sulforhodamine B (SRB) colorimetric assay. In particular, the MCF-7 cancer cell line was more susceptible to the synthesized compounds. Compound 5o (IC50 = 1.04 ± 0.10 μM) emerged as the most active member in this study against MCF-7, with 7-fold increased activity compared to the reference drug, doxorubicin (IC50 = 7.30 ± 0.84 μM). Compounds 5l, 5q and 8b also exhibited superior cytotoxic activity against MCF-7 with IC50 values of 1.93 ± 0.17, 3.87 ± 0.31 and 4.66 ± 0.42 μM, respectively. All of the tested compounds were filtered according to the Lipinski and Veber rules and all of them passed the filters. Additionally, several ADME descriptors for the synthesized compounds 5a-s and 8a,b were predicted via a theoretical kinetic study performed using the Discovery Studio 2.5 software.

Molecules (Basel, Switzerland). 2016 Jun 10*** epublish ***

Wagdy M Eldehna, Mohamed Fares, Hany S Ibrahim, Muhammad A Alsherbiny, Mohamed H Aly, Hazem A Ghabbour, Hatem A Abdel-Aziz

Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Egyptian Russian University, Badr City, Cairo 11829, Egypt. ., Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Egyptian Russian University, Badr City, Cairo 11829, Egypt. ., Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Egyptian Russian University, Badr City, Cairo 11829, Egypt. ., Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Cairo University, Kasr El-Aini Street, Cairo 11562, Egypt. ., Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Faculty of Pharmacy, British University in Egypt, Cairo 11562, Egypt. ., Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, College of Pharmacy, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2457, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia. ., Department of Applied Organic Chemistry, National Research Center, Dokki, Giza 12622, Egypt. .