Synthesis and biological evaluation of novel 6-hydrazinyl-2,4-bismorpholino pyrimidine and 1,3,5-triazine derivatives as potential antitumor agents.

A series of 6-hydrazinyl-2,4-bismorpholino pyrimidine and 1,3,5-triazine derivatives (5a-5l and 8a-8o) were synthesized and their chemical structures as well as the relative stereochemistry were confirmed. All the synthesized compounds were evaluated for antiproliferative activity against three cancer cell lines (H460, HT-29, and MDA-MB-231). Several potent compounds were further evaluated against two other cell lines (U87MG, H1975). Most of the prepared compounds, particularly compounds 5c and 5j with IC(50) values (0.07 and 0.05 µM, respectively) in the nM range, exhibited moderate to excellent antiproliferative activity and high selectivity against the H460 cancer cell line as compared with compound 1. The most promising compound 5j, possessing a cyano group at the 3-position of the benzene ring, showed strong antiproliferative activity against H460, HT-29, and MDA-MB-231 cell lines with IC(50) values of 0.05, 6.31, and 6.50 µM, which were 4.6- to 190.4-fold more active than compound 1 (9.52, 29.24, and 36.21 µM), respectively.