Indole Derived Anticancer Agents

Indole moiety is a magnificent nucleus in the development of anticancer drugs. The pharmacological profile of indole is excellent in targeting a wide range of proteins, enzymes. An indole has a nitrogen atom that is capable of forming hydrogen bonds with the targets emphasizing its potential. Many studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of indole in the treatment of cancer by working through various pathways. Indole-based drugs got market approval to be used as chemotherapeutics, such as vincristine and vinblastine which encourage researchers to work on indole derivatives for cancer treatment with a better pharmacokinetic profile. This prompted us to review on indole derivatives as anticancer agents to bring out their potential derivatives under study. This study encompasses literature published between 2014 and 2021 on indole scaffold that exhibits in vitro and in vivo potential against cancer by searching PubMed, Google Scholar, and Science Direct databases. The search terms were "anticancer", "indole", "cell lines", "structure-activity relationship" and "cytotoxic activity."