Novel N-(aryl/heteroaryl)-2-chlorobenzenesulfonamide derivatives: Synthesis and anticancer activity evaluation

A new series of N-(aryl/heteroaryl)-2-chlorobenzenesulfonamide derivatives 4-21 have been synthesized, and evaluated at the National Cancer Institute (USA) for their in vitro activities against a panel of 60 different human cancer cell lines. Among them, compounds 16, 20 and 21 exhibited remarkable cytotoxic activity against numerous human cancer cell lines. We found that sulfonamide derivative 21 appeared to be more selective than compounds 16 and 20. In comparison to compounds 16 and 20 it showed higher cytotoxic activity against A549 non-small cell lung adenocarcinoma and HCT-116 colon carcinoma cells and was less toxic to HEK-293 human embryonic kidney cells and HaCaT immortalized human keratinocytes. Treatment of A549 and HCT-116 cells with compound 21 resulted in the G0/G1-cell cycle arrest with a concomitant increase in p53 and p21 protein levels. Moreover, compound 21 led to ATP depletion and disruption of the mitochondrial membrane potential in both studied cell lines. Our results suggest that 2,4-dichloro-N-(quinolin-8-yl and/or 1H-indazol-7-yl)benzenesulfonamides serve as novel promising anticancer agents.