Investigations on the antitumor activity of classical trifluoro-substituted zinc phthalocyanines derivatives.

Hay synthesis of a novel series of symmetrically tetra-substituted thiophenyl zinc(II)phthalocyanines (RS)ZnPcs 4a-c was reported. Their novel 4-thiophenyl-phthalonitriles precursors 3(a-c) were synthesized from their substituted thiophenols 2(a-c). They were screened for their in-vitro antitumor activity on Human lung adenocarcinoma (A549), human breast adenocarcinoma (MCF-7) and hepatocellular carcinoma in comparison with healthy normal cells (human fibroblast cells). Preliminary study of the structure-activity relationship showed that electronic factors in the trifluoromethyl moiety that attached to the ZnPc skeleton had a magnificent effect on the antitumor activity of the newly synthesized (RS)ZnPcs 4a-c. More interestingly, the ZnPc 4c showed promising anticancer activity against the tested human cancer cell lines. The detailed synthesis, characterization and biological screening data were reported.