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Brief Report

Design and synthesis of chromone-nitrogen mustard derivatives and evaluation of anti-breast cancer activity

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Pages 437-450 | Received 21 Sep 2021, Accepted 10 Dec 2021, Published online: 27 Dec 2021
 

Abstract

Chromone has emerged as one of the most important synthetic scaffolds for antitumor activity, which promotes the development of candidate drugs with better activity. In this study, a series of nitrogen mustard derivatives of chromone were designed and synthesised, in order to discover promising anti-breast tumour candidates. Almost all target derivatives showed antiproliferative activity against MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cell lines. In particular, methyl (S)-3-(4-(bis(2-chloroethyl)amino)phenyl)-2-(5-(((6-methoxy-4-oxo-4H-chromen-3-yl)methyl)amino)-5-oxopentanamido)propanoate showed the most potent antiproliferative activity with IC50 values of 1.83 and 1.90 μM, respectively, and it also exhibited certain selectivity between tumour cells and normal cells. Further mechanism exploration against MDA-MB-231 cells showed that it possibly induced G2/M phase arrest and apoptosis by generating intracellular ROS and activating DNA damage. In addition, it also inhibited MDA-MB-231 cells metastasis, invasion and adhesion. Overall, methyl (S)-3-(4-(bis(2-chloroethyl)amino)phenyl)-2-(5-(((6-methoxy-4-oxo-4H-chromen-3-yl)methyl)amino)-5-oxopentanamido)propanoate showed potent antitumor activities and relatively low side effects, and deserved further investigation.

Graphical Abstract

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Correction

Correction Statement

This article was originally published with errors, which have now been corrected in the online version. Please see Correction (10.1080/14756366.2022.2024999).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was financially supported by General Scientific Research Projects of Department of Education in Liaoning Province [2019LJC11] and Career Development Support Plan for Young and Middle-aged Teachers in Shenyang Pharmaceutical University.