Design, synthesis, anti-cancer evaluation and binding mode studies of benzimidazole/benzoxazole linked β-carboline derivatives

A new series of benzimidazole/benzoxazole linked beta-carbolines (9a-j) were rationally designed and synthesized by combining two different anti-cancer fragments. The new hybrid beta-carbolines are subjected to anti-cancer screening against four different human cancer cell lines such as MCF-7 (breast), A549 (lung), Colo-205 (colon) and A2780 (ovarian) by using standard MIT assay. These hybrid beta-carbolines exhibited significant and high fold anti-cancer activity against MCF-7 cell lines than reference standard. They are also proved to be effective against A549 and Colo-205 cell lines. Further, compound 9b, 9c from benzimidazole and 9i from benzoxazole series have exhibited maximum anti-cancer activity among these hybrid beta-carbolines. Later, all of the hybrid beta-carbolines were subjected to molecular interaction analysis against a few selected kinase targets such as cdc-like kinase (CLK-1 to CLK-4), epidermal growth factor reductase (EGFR) kinase, protein (ATR) kinase along with APC-Asef interface. The violin plot of binding energies of 9a-9j have suggested them as good kinase binders. Result interpretation suggested hybrid beta-carbolines as promising CLK binders. The anti-cancer data of new hybrid beta-carbolines against MCF-7 cell lines are in agreement with parent beta-carboline skeleton. (C) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

A new series of benzimidazole/benzoxazole linked beta-carbolines were designed and synthesized, showing significant anti-cancer activity, especially against MCF-7 cell lines. These hybrid beta-carbolines also exhibited potential as kinase binders in molecular interaction analysis, suggesting promising future applications in cancer research.