To engineer curcumin analogues with an improved pharmacokinetic profile and a greater potential to treat aggressive cancers, five scaffolds of heteroaromatic curcumin analogs (over sixty analogues in total) have been designed and synthesized for the evaluation of their cytotoxicity against two hormone-independent prostate cancer cell lines and an aggressive cervical cancer cell line. The five scaffolds were designated according to the following linkers between two identical heteroaromatic rings: N-methylpiperidone, cyclohexanone, dienone, trienone, and 4,4-dimethyl-1,6-dien-3,5-dione. More than 90% of these analogues are more cytotoxic than parental curcumin towards these three human cancer cell lines in trypan blue dye exclusion assay. The effects of five different linkers and the effects of different heteroaromatic rings on the cytotoxicity were explored. The design, syntheses, cytotoxic data, and structure-activity relationships will be presented.

Structure-activity relationships of novel curcumin-based anticancer agents

248th National Meeting (2014)

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