Development of certain novel N-(2-(2-(2-oxoindolin-3-ylidene)hydrazinecarbonyl)phenyl)-benzamides and 3-(2-oxoindolin-3-ylideneamino)-2-substituted quinazolin-4(3H)-ones as CFM-1 analogs: Design, synthesis, QSAR analysis and anticancer activity

•Twenty novel compounds were prepared and tested against five tumor cell lines.•Most of the tested cell lines were remarkably sensitive towards six derivatives.•Compound 5b, 5d and 6b could be suitable candidates for further modification.•Ten statistically significant QSAR models were developed and cross validated.

The reaction of N-(2-(hydrazinecarbonyl)aryl)benzamides 2a, b with indoline-2,3-diones 4ae in acidified ethanolic solution furnished the corresponding N-(2-(2-(2-oxoindolin-3-ylidene)hydrazinecarbonyl)phenyl)benzamides 5aj, respectively. Furthermore, 3-(2-oxoindolin-3-ylideneamino)-2-substituted quinazolin-4(3H)-ones 6aj were prepared by the reaction of 3-amino-2-arylquinazolin-4(3H)-one 3a, b with 4ae. Six derivatives of the twenty newly synthesized compounds showed remarkable antitumor activity against most of the tested cell lines, Daoy, UW228-2, Huh-7, Hela and MDA-MB231. Although these six compounds were more potent than the standard drug (CFM-1), indeed compounds 5b, 5d and 6b were the best candidates with IC50 values in the range 1.866.87, 4.4210.89 and 1.468.60 μg/ml and percentage inhibition in the range 77.188.7, 59.4184.8 and 75.488.0%, respectively. QSAR analyses on the current series of derivatives also have been performed for all five cancer cell lines and thus 10 statistically significant models were developed and internally cross validated.

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