Potent antitumor activity of synthetic 1,2-naphthoquinones and 1,4-naphthoquinones

Abstract

Rhinacanthone (1) and two 1,2-pyranonaphthoquinones (2,3) were synthesized and found to show very potent cytotoxicity against three cancer cell lines (KB, HeLa and HepG2) with IC50values of 0.92-9.63 μM, whereas the corresponding hydroxylated derivative 4 had reduced cytotoxicity (IC50values of 7.61-24.13 μM). Three 1,2-furanonaphthoquinone derivatives (5-7) were also synthesized with similar cytotoxicity as 1,2-pyranonaphthoquinones. In comparison to 1,2-naphthoquinones, six 1,4-naphthoquinones derivatives fused with pyran ring (8-10) and furan ring (11-13) were synthesized and they showed less cytotoxicity or inactive to the cancer cell lines. Moreover, compound 13 had significant cytotoxicity against HeLa cell line (IC50value of 9.25 μM) while it showed no toxic to vero cell. © 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.