Synthesis of podophyllotoxin linked β-carboline congeners as potential anticancer agents and DNA topoisomerase II inhibitors.

A series of new podophyllotoxin linked β-carboline congeners have been synthesized by coupling various substituted β-carboline acids with 4β-aminopodophyllotoxin. Evaluation of their anticancer activity against a panel of human cancer cell lines such as lung cancer (A549), prostate cancer (DU-145), MDA MB-231 (breast cancer), HT-29 (colon cancer) and HeLa (cervical cancer) suggested that 7i and 7j are the most cytotoxic compounds with IC values of 1.07 ± 0.

Design, synthesis and biological evaluation of new β-carboline-bisindole compounds as DNA binding, photocleavage agents and topoisomerase I inhibitors.

A series of new β-carboline-bisindole compounds were designed, synthesized and evaluated for their antiproliferative activity against human cancer cell lines, such as A549 (lung cancer), DU-145 (prostate cancer), HeLa (cervical cancer) and MCF-7 (breast cancer). All the compounds exhibited considerable antiproliferative activity. Among them, compounds 7g and 7r exhibited significant antiproliferative activity against DU-145 cells with IC values 1.