Synthesis of novel [1-aziridinyl-(hydroxyimino)methyl]arenes and their cytotoxic activity

The synthesis has been developed for novel potential anticancer agents whose structures contain an aziridine amidoxime group. The cytotoxic activity of all of the target compounds on different cell lines are given together with the in vitro IC50 and LD50 values found. The most promising anticancer agents were found to be the methyl 4-[1-aziridinyl(hydroxyimino)methyl]benzoate, 1-aziridinyl(2-naphthyl)-methanone oxime, and 1-aziridinyl(2-quinolyl)methanone oxime.