Novel fluorescent molecules based on coumarin-chalcone hybrids for visually detection of pH and their anticancer activities

Compounds including coumarin and chalcone structure have widely attracted attention in view of their numerous biological activities and excellent optical properties. In this work, two fluorescent molecules C1 and C2 with good fluorescence emission and UV absorption properties were synthesized from cheap and easily accessible materials by a simple synthetic process. The solution of C1 is sensitive to basic solution and presents visual color changes range from pH = 11.60-13.40 under ultraviolet and fluorescence conditions, indicating that C1 can be used as a precise indicator and sensor to determine pH value changes of strong alkalic solution. The potential applicants for sensor C1 were investigated to confirm that it could conveniently be made a series of strips to rapidly and sensitively detection of pH value in complex environments. Moreover, C1 and C2 also exhibit satisfactory activities on the inhibitory proliferation of A549 and HELA cells employing CCK-8 method, and their IC50 values were 7.85 mu M, 6.11 mu M and 5.93 mu M, 6.25 mu M, respectively, which were near to those of the positive control colchicine (6.23 mu M and 1.85 mu M). The preliminary evaluations of the anti-tumor activities of C1 and C2 indicate that they may have better potential in the development of anti-tumor drugs.