Synthesis, structure, antitumor activity of novel pharmaceutical co-crystals based on bispyridyl-substituted α, β-unsaturated ketones with gallic acid

•Three novel pharmaceutical co-crystals 1–3 were generated.•Pharmaceutical ingredients link each other into H-bonding network.•Their antitumor activities have improved distinctly, especially for 1.•Their cytotoxicities have reduced markedly.•It may be dependent on the synergistic effect of pharmaceutical ingredients.

Three novel pharmaceutical co-crystals, (A)·(gallic acid) (1), (B)·(gallic acid) (2), and (C)·(gallic acid) (3) were generated based on 2,6-bis((pyridin-4-yl)methylene)cyclohexanone (A), N-methyl-3,5-bis((pyridin-3-yl)methylene)-4-piperidone (B), N-methyl-3,5-bis((pyridin-4-yl)methylene)-4-piperidone (C) with gallic acid, respectively. They are characterized by elemental analysis, FTIR spectroscopy, 1H NMR and single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Structural analysis reveals that two pharmaceutical ingredients link each other into H-bonding-driven 3D network in 1, 2, or 2D plane in 3. In addition, their antitumor activities against human neoplastic cell lines A549, SGC-7901, MCF-7, OVCA-433, HePG2 and cytotoxicity for HUVEC cell lines by CCK-8 method were evaluated primarily. Compared with gallic acid and free A, B and C, their antitumor activities have improved distinctly, while cytotoxicities have reduced markedly, especially for co-crystal 1. This is mainly because of the synergistic effect between pharmaceutical ingredients A, B, and C and gallic acid.

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