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The anticancer activity of acridone derivatives has attracted increasing interest, therefore, a variety of substituted analogs belonging to this family have been developed and evaluated for their anti-cancer properties. A series of N -alkyl-acridones 1 - 6 and N , N '-dialkyl-9,9'-biacridylidenes 7 - 12 with variable alkyl chains were examined for their topoisomerase I activity at neutral and acidic conditions as well as for their binding capacity to calf thymus and possible radical trapping antioxidant activity. It was found that at a neutral pH, topoisomerase I activity of both classes of compounds was similar, while under acidic conditions, enhanced intercalation was observed. N -alkyl-acridone derivatives 1 - 6 exhibited stronger, dose-dependent, cytotoxic activity against MCF-7 human breast epithelial cancer cells than N , N' -dialkyl-9,9'-biacridylidenes 7 - 12 , revealing that conjugation of the heteroaromatic system plays a significant role on the effective distribution of the compound in the intracellular environment. Cellular investigation of long alkyl derivatives against cell migration exhibited 40-50% wound healing effects and cytoplasm diffusion, while compounds with shorter alkyl chains were accumulated both in the nucleus and cytoplasm. All N , N' -dialkyl-9,9'-biacridylidenes showed unexpected high scavenging activity towards DPPH or ABTS radicals which may be explained by higher stabilization of radical cations by the extended conjugation of heteroaromatic ring system., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.