New (E)-1-alkyl-1H-benzo[d]imidazol-2-yl)methylene)indolin-2-ones: Synthesis, in vitro cytotoxicity evaluation and apoptosis inducing studies

•Novel (E)-1-Alkyl-1H-benzo[d]imidazol-2-yl)methylene)indolin-2-ones were synthesized.•Cytotoxicity on selected human cancer cell lines and one normal cell line.•Compound 8l induced apoptosis, disruption of F-actin assembly and G0/G1 cell cycle arrest.•8l Inhibited cell migration, caused the collapse of DΨm and increased the level of superoxide ROS.•8l activated caspase-3 and cleaved PARP, caused changes in expression of Bax and Bcl-2.

A new series of (E)-benzo[d]imidazol-2-yl)methylene)indolin-2-one derivatives has been synthesized and evaluated for their in vitro cytotoxic activity against a panel of selected human cancer cell lines of prostate (PC-3 and DU-145) and breast (BT-549, MDA-MB-231, MCF-7, 4T1), non-small lung (A549) and gastric (HGC) cancer cells along with normal breast epithelial cells (MCF10A). Among the tested compounds, 8l showed significant cytotoxic activity against MDA-MB-231 and 4T1 cancer cells with IC50 values of 3.26 ± 0.24 μM and 5.96 ± 0.67 μM respectively. The compounds 8f, 8i, 8l and 8o were also screened on normal human breast epithelial cells (MCF10A) and found to be safer with lesser cytotoxicity. The treatment of MDA-MB-231 cells with 8l led to inhibition of cell migration ability through disruption of F-actin protein assembly. The flow-cytometry analysis reveals that the cells arrested in G0/G1 phase of the cell cycle. Further, the compound 8l induced apoptosis of MDA-MB-231 cells was characterized by different staining techniques such as Acridine Orange/Ethidium Bromide (AO/EB), DAPI, annexin V-FITC/PI, Rhodamine-123 and MitoSOX red assay. Western blot studies demonstrated that the compound 8l treatment led to activation of caspase-3, increased expression of cleaved PARP, increased expression of pro-apoptotic Bax and decreased expression of anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 in MDA-MB-231 cancer cells.

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