Polymethine cyanine dyes: Synthesis, cytotoxic activity, and molecular docking study

Virtually, an efficient synthetic procedure was adapted to synthesize new methine cyanine dyes 3-22 from N- arenium salt 2 which was synthesized from the reaction of 1,6-dibromohexane, and 2-benzylpyridine in the presence of dry toluene. Cytotoxicity effects of the synthesized methine cyanine dyes were estimated against two cancer cell lines, HepG2 (liver), MCF-7 (breast), and two normal cells, WI-38 (human lung fibroblasts), and Vero cells (kidney epithelial cells) as well. All compounds showed cytotoxic activity surpassing the reference 5-fluorouracil. Of them, compounds 3, 12, 13, 14, and 17 revealed a slight cytotoxic effect on the two normal cells. Moreover, by means of molecular docking, the effectiveness of our compounds towards AKT1 has been studied as it exerts a pivotal role in cell growth, proliferation, survival, and metabolism. All the studied compounds showed good binding mode as well as good binding energy into the pocket of Akt. Thus, highlighting their usefulness as up-and-coming candidates for further preclinical studies.