Synthesis and in vitro antiproliferative evaluation of pyrimido[5,4-c]quinoline-4-(3H)-one derivatives

A series of pyrimido[5,4-c]quinoline-4-(3H)-one derivatives variously substituted at positions 2 and 3 were synthesized and evaluated for their in vitro antiproliferative activities against a panel of six human cancer cell lines. Biological evaluation revealed that the vast majority of derivatives exhibited moderate tumor growth inhibitory activities. In particular, compound 7e showed effective anti-tumor activity with broad-spectrum toward numerous cell lines and the most active member in this study. This derivative displaying significant activity against KB (IC50: 4.9 mu M), CNE2 (IC50: 13.8 mu M), MGC-803 (IC50: 4.8 mu M), GLC-82 (IC50: 7.88 mu M), MDA-MB-453 (IC50: 18.2 1.1 mu M) and MCF-7 (IC50: 10.1 mu M) cell lines could be considered as the most promising and useful template for future development to obtain more potent anti-tumor agent(s). 2011 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.