A series of novel benzothiazole derivatives bearing the ortho-hydroxy N-carbamoylhydrazone moiety were designed and synthesized and their cytotoxic activities against five cancer cell lines (NCI-H226, SK-N-SH, HT29, MKN45, and MDA-MB-231) were screened in vitro. Most of them showed moderate to excellent activity against all the tested cell lines. Among them, compounds 15g (procaspase-3 EC50 = 1.42 μM) and 16b (procaspase-3 EC50 = 0.25 μM) exhibited excellent antitumor activity with IC50 values ranging from 0.14 μM to 0.98 μM against all cancer cell lines, which were 1.8-8.7 times more active than the first procaspase activating compound (PAC-1) (procaspase-3 EC50 = 4.08 μM). The structure-activity relationship (SAR) analyses indicated that the introduction of a lipophilic group (a benzyloxy or heteroaryloxy group) at the 4-position of the 2-hydroxy phenyl ring was beneficial to antitumor activity, and the presence of substituents containing nitrogen that are positively charged at physiological pH could also improve antitumor activity. It was also confirmed that the steric effect of the 4-position substituent of the benzyloxy group had a significant influence on cytotoxic activity.
Keywords: Antitumor; Benzothiazole; Ortho-hydroxy N-Carbamoylhydrazone moiety; Procaspase-3.
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