Synthesis and biological evaluation of novel 1,3-diphenylurea quinoxaline derivatives as potent anticancer agents

A series of 1,3-diphenylurea quinoxaline derivatives were synthesized and characterized by 1H, 13C NMR, and HR-ESI-MS analyses. In vitro cytotoxicity of the synthesized compounds was evaluated by MTT assay against MGC-803, H460, T-24, HeLa, HepG2, and SMMC-7721 human cancer cell lines. The results showed that most of the compounds exhibited effective cytotoxicity to the tested cancer cell lines. The mechanism of action of the two best active quinoxaline derivatives, compounds 2d and 2g was also investigated. They may be potent anticancer agents.