Recent Literature Review on Coumarin Hybrids as Potential Anticancer Agents

Abstract

Cancer is considered one of the leading causes of death globally, especially patients with lung, pancreatic, or brain tumors are most likely to die of cancer, and patients with prostate and breast cancer are at a high risk of noncancer death. As a result, there is ongoing research regarding developing new, safe, and efficient anticancer agents. Coumarin-based naturally occurring compounds possess a broad spectrum of activity in medicinal chemistry, such as anticancer, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, antioxidant agents, etc. Many researchers have synthesized coumarinbased novel therapeutic agents via molecular hybridization technique, which offers an excellent opportunity to develop novel compounds with improved biological activities by incorporating two or more pharmacophores. This review aims to shed light on the recent developments of coumarin-based anticancer hybrid derivatives and their Structure-Activity Relationships (SAR). This review serves as a medium that medicinal chemists could utilize to design and synthesize coumarin derivatives with significant pharmacological value as future anticancer agents.

Keywords: Coumarin; SAR; anticancer agent; broad spectrum of activity; molecular hybridization; therapeutic agent.