Design, synthesis, molecular docking, biological evaluations and QSAR studies of novel dichloroacetate analogues as anticancer agent

Dichloroacetate (DCA) as a mitochondria-targeting small molecule, through inhibition of pyruvate dehydrogenase kinases (PDK1-4), promotes mitochondria-regulated apoptosis and hence, inhibits tumour growth and reduces its proliferation. In this study, a series of novel N-aryl-2,2-dichloroacetamide and aryl-2,2-dichloroacetate derivatives were designed and synthesized. Their cytotoxic activities against various human cancer cell lines including A549, HCA-7, MCF-7, MDA-MB-231, KB and SKOV3 were evaluated. These compounds showed satisfactory potencies with much higher anticancer activity than the parent compound DCA, against the studied cancer cell lines. Molecular docking studies were also done to find their binding site and types of their interactions with PDKs isoenzymes. Among the synthesized compounds, 2,2-dichloro-N-(9,10-dioxo-9,10-dihydroanthracen-1-yl)acetamide (f1) can also induce A549 cells apoptosis. Therefore, compound f1 might have a potential value for further study in drug development. QSAR studies of this class of compounds were also explored using a collection of chemometrics methods. (C) 2020 Published by Elsevier B.V.