Synthesis and Characterization of Chalcone-Pyridinium Hybrids as Potential Anti-Cancer and Anti-Microbial Agents

A series of pyridinium salts (5a-p) have been synthesized and were screened for their in vitro anticancer activity against MCF-7 (breast cancer), HeLa (cervical cancer), U-87MG (human glioblastoma) and HEK293 (Human Embryonic Kidney 293 cells) cell lines by taking doxorubicin as a positive control. The compounds derived from 4-methoxyphenyl (5c) and 4-nitrophenyl (5h) have showed significant and broad spectrum antiproliferative activity against the tested cancer cell-lines and also displayed potential in vivo against Ehrlich ascites carcinoma (EAC) in mice. Also, screened the compounds for their antimicrobial and anti-acetylcholinesterase (anti-AchE) activities. It was observed form the in vitro results that, compounds derived from 4-methylphenyl (5b), 4-chlorophenyl (5f), coumarinyl (5i) and napthyl (5j) have exhibited potential antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus and the derivatives 5b and 4-fluorophenyl (5e) have showed promising antifungal activity and the compound 5c showed moderate AChE inhibitory activity.