Synthesis of isoxazole moiety containing ferrocene derivatives and preliminarily in vitro anticancer activity

Abstract

Seven new structures of an isoxazole moiety containing ferrocene derivatives (3a–3g) were firstly synthesized and characterized by ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR, ESI-MS. Subsequently, their in vitro anticancer activity against A549, HCT116 and MCF-7 cell lines was preliminarily evaluated using the MTT method. Among them, 3d exhibited a wide spectrum and the most potent anticancer activity against A549 and HCT116 cell lines (IC₅₀s: 0.747 and 3.65 nM, respectively) as compared with the reference drug gefitinib (IC₅₀s: 17.90 and 21.55 μM, respectively). 3d can be seen as the best candidate for development of anticancer drugs.