Synthesis And Cytotoxicity Of Anthraquinones

Nowadays tumor is one of the most familiar and serious diseases that endangers mankind’s life directly. More and more people suffer from cancer in our country. Extensive efforts have been devoted to discover novel anticancer drugs that are more curative and less toxic to people.Anthraquinones have been demonstrated to have potent antitumor activities and widely applied in clinic fields since1980s. A large number of anthraquinone compounds, for example, daunorubicin and doxorubicin, are found to be effective in inhibiting tumor cells. The thesis is aimed at synthesizing small molecule anthraquinones and screening their cytotoxicity in vitro. The detailed contents are as follows:Firstly,34compounds with different substituents were synthesized by chemical modification of anthraquinones. Of these, compound31showed the highest tumor cell growth inhibition efficiency.Secondly, a series of small molecule compounds (35-67) was synthesized on the basis of compound31to discover more potent compounds. Compound59showed better results than others on SMMC-7721cells (IC50=0.59μM). Interestingly, compound60was found to selectively inhibit SMMC-7721cells, while exhibit less effect on other cancer cells.Thirdly, compounds68-82were synthesized. Most of them exhibited excellent potency on SMMC-7721cells with a IC50level of nM. Compound82showed best result and a lowest IC50value of300nM.Last, compounds83-91with four fluorine atoms were designed and synthesized. Compound87exhibited the highest cytotoxicity against SMMC-7721cells (IC50=0.825μM).Overall, a series of anthraquinone derivatives was designed and synthesized and their inhibition efficiencies against human cancer cells proliferation were investigated. Further studies on their biomedical applications are still under research.