Phenotypic screening of high quality compound library is an effective strategy to discover novel bioactive molecules. Previously, we developed the divergent organocatalytic cascade approach to efficiently construct a focused library with scaffold diversity and successfully identified a novel spiropyrazolone antitumor scaffold. Herein, a series of spiropyrazolone derivatives were designed, synthesized and assayed. Most of them showed good in vitro antitumor activity with a broad spectrum. Preliminary structure-activity relationship for the substitutions and the stereo configuration were obtained. Compound 5k showed good antitumor activity and could effectively induce cancer cell apoptosis, which represents a good starting point for the development of novel antitumor agents.
Keywords: Antitumor; Cancer cell apoptosis; Spiropyrazolone; Structure–activity relationship.
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