Dinaphthonaphthyridines – a class of novel molecules with potent antioxidant and anticancer activity

Abstract

A series of novel dinaphtho[1,2-b:1′,2′-h][1,6]naphthyridine derivatives bearing aliphatic, aromatic and heteroaromatic substituents at the C₇ position were designed and synthesized conveniently from 4-chloro-2-methylbenzo[h]quinoline. All compounds were screened for in vitro antioxidant activities against DPPH˙, ABTS˙⁺, superoxide and hydroxyl radicals. Among the compounds screened, 13, 15, 16, 19 and 20 showed excellent antioxidant activity against OH˙. In addition, the cytotoxicity of the dinaphthonaphthyridine derivatives was evaluated by MTT assay and compared with Adriamycin. From screening, we identified that compounds 6, 16 and 20 showed IC₅₀s ranging from 1.20 to 5.61 μM for growth inhibition of HeLa, HCT116 and AGS cancer cell lines. The results documented that varying of the chemical entity at C₇ can fine-tune the enhancement of cell growth inhibition strategy.