A new series of novel Podophyllotoxin-like benzo[b]furo[3,4-e][1,4]diazepin-1-ones possessing structural elements of 4-aza-2,3-didehydropodophyllotoxins with central diazepine ring was designed and synthesized as anti-cancer agents. In initial assessment, the cytotoxic activity of the synthesized compounds was evaluated against three cancer cell lines including MCF-7, PC3 and B16-F10 employing the MTT assay. Some of compounds (12h, 13a, 13c and 14b) showed significant cytotoxic activity. So, we investigated the cytotoxicity of compounds 12h, 13a, 13c and 14b, along with podophyllotoxin as the reference drug in different cancer cell lines including A549, A2780, DU145, HeLa, and normal Huvec cell line. Among these four compounds, 13c showed promising antiproliferative activity against all cancer cells stronger than the other compounds and comparable to reference drug podophyllotoxin in some cancer cells. All these four compounds did not show significant cytotoxicity on normal Huvec cell line. The flow cytometry analysis of the MCF-7, PC3 and A2780 human cancer cell lines treated with 13c showed that 13c, induced apoptosis in the MCF-7, PC3 and A2780 human cancer cell lines, which is in good agreement to its cytotoxic activity as well. Compound 13c did not show significant influence on tubulin assembly and exert its cytotoxic effects via induction of apoptosis and has potent and selective cytotoxic effects in cancer cells.

设计并设计了一系列新的鬼臼毒素样苯并[ b ]呋喃[3,4-e] [1,4]二氮杂pin-1-酮类化合物，它们具有带有中心二氮杂环的4-氮杂-2,3-二氢鬼臼毒素类结构单元。合成为抗癌药。在初步评估中，采用MTT分析法评估了合成化合物对三种癌细胞系的细胞毒活性，包括MCF-7，PC3和B16-F10。某些化合物（12h，13a，13c和14b）显示出明显的细胞毒活性。因此，我们研究了化合物12h，13a，13c和14b的细胞毒性，以及鬼臼毒素作为参考药物在包括A549，A2780，DU145，HeLa和正常Huvec细胞系在内的不同癌细胞系中的作用。在这四种化合物中，13c对所有癌细胞的抗增殖活性都强于其他化合物，在某些癌细胞中与参考药物鬼臼毒素相当。所有这四种化合物对正常的Huvec细胞系均未显示出明显的细胞毒性。用13c处理的MCF-7，PC3和A2780人类癌细胞系的流式细胞仪分析表明13c诱导了MCF-7，PC3和A2780人类癌细胞系的凋亡，这与它的细胞毒活性非常吻合。好吧。化合物13c 不会对微管蛋白组装产生显着影响，并通过诱导凋亡发挥其细胞毒性作用，并且对癌细胞具有有效和选择性的细胞毒性作用。