Synthesis and Evaluation of Heterocycles Based Chalcone Derivatives as Antiproliferative Agents.

A series of novel chalcone derivatives bearing diverse heterocycles have been synthesized and evaluated for their antiproliferative activity against A549 (human lung adenocarcinoma) and C6 (rat brain glioma) cells. Structures of the title compounds (3-18) were verified by FT-IR, 1H NMR, 13C NMR, HRMS spectral data and elemental analyses. Antiproliferative activities of the compounds were evaluated using MTT assay, BrdU method, and flow cytometric analysis. Compounds 9 and 15 were revealed as the most promising cytotoxic agents due to their selectivity towards A549 cells with a lower IC50 values (IC50=0.05 µM and IC50=0.0316 µM) than cisplatin (IC50=0.06 µM). Flow cytometric analysis of compounds 9 and 15 showed that they affected lung cancer cells by the apoptotic pathway.