Anticancer Activity of Some New Synthesized Tetrahydroquinoline and Tetrahydrochromene Carbonitrile Derivatives

Problem statement: In continuation to our search for new heterocyclic chemistry based anticancer, the suggestion, synthesis, structure elucidation of some naphthalene, chromene and quinoline derivatives 3-7 were realized herein using 3-methylcyclohexanone 1 as a starting material. Approach: The antitumor activities of the newly synthesized compounds 4-7 were evaluated utilizing 60 different human tumor cell lines, representing leukemia, melanoma, lung, colon, brain, ovary, breast and prostate as well as kidney. Results: Some of the tested compounds exhibited better in vitro antitumor activities at low concentration (log10 GI₅₀ = -4.7) against the used human tumor cell lines. Conclusion: From the obtained results, we can conclude that cyanopyridine and pyrane moieties fused to 3-methycyclohexane ring are essential for antitumor activities. In the present work, we can suggest that the anticancer activity is due to the presence of nitrogen heterocyclic rings and the presence of the nitrile groups (CN) generally enhancing the activity.