Synthesis, antiproliferative activity and molecular docking of Colchicine derivatives

•A series of novel Colchicine derivatives was synthesized.•These derivatives were evaluated for their anticancer activity.•The crystal and DFT calculated structures of two compounds are presented.•Binding modes in the Colchicine-binding site on β-tubulin were determined.

In order to create more potent anticancer agents, a series of five structurally different derivatives of Colchicine have been synthesised. These compounds were characterised spectroscopically and structurally and their antiproliferative activity against four human tumour cell lines (HL-60, HL-60/vinc, LoVo, LoVo/DX) was evaluated. Additionally the activity of the studied compounds was calculated using computational methods involving molecular docking of the Colchicine derivatives to β-tubulin. The experimental and computational results are in very good agreement indicating that the antimitotic activity of Colchicine derivatives can be readily predicted using computational modeling methods.

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