Synthesis and biological evaluation of oxindole linked indolyl-pyrimidine derivatives as potential cytotoxic agents

Abstract

In our endeavor towards the development of effective cytotoxic agents, a series of oxindole linked indolyl-pyrimidine derivatives were synthesized and characterized by IR, 1H NMR, 13C NMR and Mass spectral analysis. All the newly synthesized target compounds were assessed against PA-1 (ovarian), U-87MG (glioblastoma), LnCaP (prostate), and MCF-7 (Breast) cancer cell lines for their cytotoxic potential, with majority of them showing inhibitory activity at low micro-molar concentrations. Significantly, compound 8e was found to be most potent amongst all the tested compounds with an IC50 value of (2.43±0.29μM) on PA-1 cells. The influence of the most active cytotoxic compound 8e on the cell cycle distribution was assessed on the PA-1 cell line, exhibiting a cell cycle arrest at the G2/M phase. Moreover, acridine orange/ethidium bromide staining and annexin V binding assay confirmed that compound 8e can induce cell apoptosis in PA-1 cells. These preliminary results persuade further investigation on the synthesized compounds aiming to the development of potential cytotoxic agents.