Pro-apoptotic activities of novel synthetic quinones in human cancer cell lines

Four novel quinonoid compounds are evaluated for their apoptotic potential against three cancer cell lines, i.e. MCF-7, HeLa and MG-63. APOPercentage (TM) assay was used for the screening of the compounds and it was established that the apoptotic potential of these compounds is cell line specific. The compound 2-(1',4'-benzoquinon-2'-yl)-5-hydroxy-7-methyl-1,4-naphthoquinone (S4) was found to be most active, which has a potential to kill similar to 99% of HeLa cancer cells in vitro after 72 h at a concentration of 10 mu M. The compound's ability to induce specific markers of apoptosis in HeLa cells is further confirmed by DNA fragmentation and cell cycle assays. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.