“On water” expedient synthesis of 3-indolyl-3-hydroxy oxindole derivatives and their anticancer activity in vitro

• One-step entry to the potential synthon 3-hydroxy-3,3′-bisindolin-2-ones on water.
• Diverse functionalities of isatin as well as indoles gave excellent yields.
• 5-chloro-1-(2-chlorobenzyl)-3-hydroxy-3-(5-methoxy-1H-indol-3-yl)indolin-2-one is found to be potent on all the cell lines.
• On MCF7 cell line, 3-(5-bromo-1H-indol-3-yl)-3-hydroxy-5-(trifluoromethoxy)indolin-2-one is 3 fold active than Etoposide.

A series of 3-indolyl-3-hydroxy oxindole derivatives (n = 41) were synthesized by the green aminocatalytic method with excellent yields under mild reaction conditions. All the newly synthesized derivatives were subjected to evaluate their cytotoxic properties against different human cancer cell lines. Results indicated that about 73% of the derivatives exhibited significant anti-proliferative activities against leukemia (U937, THP-1), lung (A549) and breast cancer (MCF7) cell lines. Among them a few of the derivatives exhibited the most potent and effective cytotoxic activities on U937 (34, 36, 38 and 41) and MCF7 (12, 35, 40 and 41) cell lines, and their anti-proliferation activities are better than the positive control, Etoposide.

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