Synthesis and investigations into the anticancer and antibacterial activity studies of beta-carboline chalcones and their bromide salts

A series of sixteen beta-carbolines, bearing chalcone moiety at C-1 position, were prepared from easily accessible 1-acetyl-beta-carboline and various aldehydes under basic conditions followed by N-2-alkylation using different alkyl bromides. The prepared compounds were evaluated for in vitro cytotoxicity against a panel of human tumor cell lines. N-2-Alkylated-beta-carboline chalcones 13a-i represented the interesting anticancer activities compared to N-2-unsubstituted-beta-carboline chalcones 12a-g. Off the prepared beta-carbolines, 13g exhibited broad spectrum of activity with IC50 values lower than 22.5 mu M against all the tested cancer cell lines. Further, the N-2-alkylated-beta-carboline chalcone 13g markedly induced cell death in MDA-MB-231 cells by AO/EB staining assay. The most cytotoxic compound 13g possessed a relatively high drug score of 0.48. Additionally, the prepared beta-carboline chalcones displayed moderate antibacterial activities against tested bacterial strains. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.