Design, Synthesis and In vitro Cytotoxic Evaluation of Novel Hybrids of Artemisinin and Quinazolinone

Abstract

Background: In this study, two novel hybrid series of artemisinin and quinazolinones were synthesized and evaluated in vitro cytotoxicity against two human cancer cell lines, including SKLu-1 (lung cancer), MCF- 7 (breast cancer). The bio-assay results indicated that most of the target compounds exhibited cytotoxic activities against both human cancer cell lines tested, and seemed to be more cytotoxic toward the breast (MCF-7) cancer cells than lung (SKLu-1) cancer cells. Among the synthesized artemisinin hybrids, the compound 13d containing a quinazolinone conjugated system exhibited the most potent cytotoxicity against the SKLu-1 and MCF-7 cell lines with IC50 values of 1.62 and 0.77 µM, respectively. Objective: This study aims at developing novel hybrids of artemisinin and quinazolinones as anti-cancer agents. Method: A series of novel hybrids were designed, synthesized and evaluated for cytotoxicity against two human cancer cell lines, including SKLu-1 and MCF-7 using SRB method. Results : All thirteen hybrids of artemisinin with quinazolinone exhibited cytotoxic activity against two tested cancer cell lines, in which the compound 13d exhibited the most potent cytotoxicity against the SKLu-1 and MCF-7 cell lines with IC50 values of 1.62 and 0.77 µM, respectively. Conclusion: The research results suggest that some compounds could be considered as leads for future design of hybrids and have the potential for further studies in the field of anti-cancer agent development.