Thermoresponsive dendrimers based on oligoethylene glycols: Design, synthesis and cytotoxic activity against MCF-7 breast cancer cells

•Three new thermoresponsive dendrimers were synthesized.•Some of these new compounds exhibited cytotoxicity against MCF-7 cell.•The best result was obtained by compound D2 with IC50 of 1.07 μg/mL and resistant fraction equals 1.97%.

Three interesting thermoresponsive branched oligoethylene glycol dendrimers based on tetrabromohydroquinone were efficiently synthesized from tetrabromohydroquinone and three different oligoethylene glycol derivatives. By visual inspection, all these dendrimers are water-soluble at room temperature. The thermoresponsive behaviors were investigated by using UV/vis turbidity measurement at different temperatures for 0.25 wt% of aqueous solutions from D1, D2 and D3. The cytotoxicity of the prepared dendrimers was tested against MCF-7 breast cancer cells. All tested dendrimers showed considerable results, where D2 dendrimer gave the best result; it showed cytotoxicity against MCF-7 cell line with IC50 of 1.07 μg/mL and resistant fraction equals 1.97%, the other two dendrimers showed a modest cytotoxic profile.

Graphical abstractThree interesting thermoresponsive branched oligoethylene glycol dendrimers based on tetrabromohydroquinone were efficiently synthesized from tetrabromohydroquinone and three different oligoethylene glycol derivatives. The cytotoxicity of the prepared dendrimers was tested against MCF-7 breast cancer cells. All tested dendrimers showed considerable results against these cancer cells.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide