Design, synthesis of novel quinazolin-4-one derivatives and biological evaluation against human MCF-7 breast cancer cell line

A new series of 6,8-dibromo-2-(4-chlorophenyl)quinazolin-4(3H)-one derivatives VI–XIII were synthesized. Their chemical structures were confirmed by spectral and elemental analysis. The cytotoxic effect of the newly synthesized compounds was tested in vitro against human breast cancer cell line (MCF-7). Most of the tested compounds have shown promising cytotoxic activity. Compounds X and XIIIb exerted a powerful cytotoxic effect against MCF-7 with a very low IC50 (0.0015 and 0.0047 µmol/ml), while compounds VI, VII, VIII, XIIb, XI, XIIIc and IX exerted a moderate cytotoxic effect (IC50 0.01523, 0.0213, 0.031, 0.0478, 0.049, 0.068 and 0.079 µmol/ml respectively), compared to doxorubicin (0.0025 µmol/ml). Exploring their apoptotic effect; interestingly,all compounds activated apoptotic cascade in MCF-7. Compounds VI, XIIIb, XIIb, XI, XIIa, VII, V and VIII showed potent effect even much more than doxorubicin by 12.87–5.91 folds, while compounds XIIIc, IX, XIIIa, XIIc and X showed moderate increase in CASP3 activity by 4.96–3.22 folds relative to untreated cells more or less similar to doxorubicin (5.57 folds).