Design, synthesis, anticancer screening, docking studies and in silico ADME prediction of some β-carboline derivatives

Background: Medicinal interest has focused on beta-carbolines as anticancer agents. Methodology/Results: Several beta-carbolines were designed, synthesized and evaluated for their cytotoxic activity against MCF-7 and A-549 cancer cell lines using MTT assay. Compounds 13a, 13c, 13d and 20a were the most promising showing high selectivity indices. Compounds 13c and 20a showed potent inhibition of topoisomerase (topo-I) and kinesin spindle protein (KSP/Eg5 ATPase) which was confirmed by their docking results into the active site of both enzymes. In silico physicochemical calculations predicted that compounds 13a, 13d and 20a obeyed Lipinski's rule of five. Conclusion: Compounds 13c and 20a are multitarget anticancer leads that act as potent inhibitors for both topo-I and/or KSP ATPase.