A solvent- and catalyst-free tandem reaction: synthesis, and photophysical and biological applications of isoindoloquinazolinones.

An easy green synthetic approach for fused isoindoloquinazolinones has been developed under neat reaction (yields up to 91%) conditions. This new one-pot tandem methodology involves condensation of readily available anthranilamide with 3-(2-formylcycloalkenyl)-acrylic ester under solvent- and catalyst-free conditions. This strategy avoids the use of oxidant, and heavy metal catalysts and also is free from work-up and generation of toxic by-products. A dramatic change of photophysical properties of dihydroisoindoloquinazolinones in basic and aqueous media has also been documented in our study. Moreover, our model synthetic compound shows cytotoxic activity towards metastatic HepG2 and PC3 cancer cell lines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]