Design and Synthesis of Novel Chalcone Derivatives: Anti-Breast Cancer Activity Evaluation and Docking Study

Int J Mol Sci. 2023 Oct 25;24(21):15549. doi: 10.3390/ijms242115549.

Abstract

Chalcone is a common simple fragment of natural products with anticancer activity. In a previous study, the research group discovered a series of chalcone derivatives with stronger anticancer activities. To find better anticancer drugs, novel chalcone derivatives A1-A14, B1-B14 have continuously been designed and synthesized. The antiproliferative activity of these compounds against breast cancer cells (MCF-7) was investigated by the Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) method with 5-fluorouracil (5-Fu) as the control drug. The results showed that compound A14 exhibited excellent antiproliferative ability compared to the control drug 5-Fu. Scratch experiments and cloning experiments further confirmed that compound A14 could inhibit the proliferation and colony formation activity of MCF-7 cells. In addition, molecular docking primarily explains the interaction between compound and protein. These results suggested that compound A14 could be a promising chalcone derivative for further anti-breast cancer research.

Keywords: anti-breast cancer (MCF-7); chalcones; molecular docking; synthesis.

MeSH terms

  • Antineoplastic Agents* / therapeutic use
  • Breast Neoplasms* / drug therapy
  • Cell Line, Tumor
  • Cell Proliferation
  • Chalcone* / pharmacology
  • Chalcones* / pharmacology
  • Chalcones* / therapeutic use
  • Drug Screening Assays, Antitumor
  • Female
  • Fluorouracil / pharmacology
  • Fluorouracil / therapeutic use
  • Humans
  • Molecular Docking Simulation
  • Molecular Structure
  • Structure-Activity Relationship

Substances

  • Chalcone
  • Chalcones
  • Antineoplastic Agents
  • Fluorouracil

Grants and funding

The work was supported by the Innovation and strengthening project of Guangdong Pharmaceutical University-Special Projects in Key Fields of General Colleges and Universities in Guangdong Province (2022ZDZX2030) and Guangdong Province Graduate Education Innovation Program in 2021 (2021JGXM071), Medical Scientific Research Foundation of Guangdong Province (B20234214), Scientific Research Project of Guangdong Provincial Bureau of Traditional Chinese Medicine (20231205).