Synthesis and biological evaluation of 1-benzylidene-3,4-dihydronaphthalen-2-one as a new class of microtubule-targeting agents

A series of 1-benzylidene-3,4-dihydronaphthalen-2-one derivatives were designed and synthesized, and their biological activities in vitro and in vivo were evaluated. The results showed a number of the title compounds exhibiting potent nanomolar activity in several human Cancer cell lines. Of these, compound 22b showed the strongest inhibitory activity against human CEM, MDA-MBA-435, and K562 cells (IC(50) = 1 nM), displayed in vitro inhibition of tubulin polymerization (IC(50) = 3.93 μM), and significantly induced cell cycle arrest in G2/M phase. In addition, compound 22b could inhibit the tumor growth in colon nude mouse xenograft tumor model significantly and seemed safer than CA-4 when achieving a similar tumor suppression. This study provided a new molecular scaffold for the further development of antitumor agents that target tubulin.