Synthesis of novel 4′-acylamino modified 21E-benzylidene steroidal derivatives and their cytotoxic activities

•A series of 4′-acylamino modified 21E-benzylidene derivatives 6a-v were synthesized.•Their toxicity against brine shrimp and in vitro cytotoxic activities were evaluated.•Compound 6f produced promising cytotoxic activity against HeLa and MCF-7 cells.

A series of 4′-acylamino modified Δ1,4-pregnadien-21E-benzylidene-3,20-dione derivatives (6a-v) was synthesized from the commercially available progesterone (1). These title compounds were evaluated for their toxicity against brine shrimp (Artemia salina) and cytotoxic activities against two human cancer cell lines (HeLa and MCF-7). The results revealed that compound 6f exhibited promising in vitro cytotoxic activity to the two cancer cell lines and the nature of acylamino functional group in the benzylidene moiety had a significant influence on cytotoxicity.

Graphical abstractDownload high-res image (73KB)Download full-size image