Cytotoxicity evaluation of marine alkaloid analogues of viscosaline and theonelladin C

A series of new oxygenated analogues of marine 3-alkylpyridine alkaloids were prepared from 3-pyridinepropanol in few steps and in good yields. The compounds were evaluated in vitro for their anticancer potential against two human cancer cell lines: colon carcinoma (RKO) cells and melanoma (SK-MEL-28) cells. The screening results showed that six compounds decreased the cell viability, as determined by the colorimetric MTT assay. Against RKO cells, compounds 10b and 5b were the most active, with IC50 values of 1.90 and 2.02 μM, respectively. Compound 10b was the most active against SK-MEL-28 cells, with IC50 value of 2.85 μM. In addition, compounds 5b and 10b were able to induce apoptosis on RKO cells by TUNEL assay. The results suggest that these compounds may be a promising class of substances with cytotoxicity activity.