Synthesis and preliminary evaluation of 3-thiocyanato-1H-indoles as potential anticancer agents

A novel series of twenty 3-thiocyanato-1H-indoles, carrying diversification at positions N-1, C-2 and C-5 of the heterocyclic core, were synthesized; their antiproliferative activity against four human cancer cell lines (HL60, HEP-2, NCI-H292 and MCF-7) was evaluated, employing doxorubicin as positive control. Indole, N-methylindole and 2-(4-chlorophenyl)-N-methylindole demonstrated to be essentially inactive, whereas several of their congener 3-thiocyanato-1H-indoles displayed good to excellent levels of potency (IC50 ≤ 6 μM), while being non-hemolytic. N-Phenyl-3-thiocyanato-1H-indole and 1-methyl-2-(4-chlorophenyl)-3-thiocyanato-1H-indole showed good to high potency against all the cell lines. On the other side, the N-(4-chlorophenyl)-, 2-(4-chlorophenyl)- and 2-phenyl- 3-thiocyanato-1H-indole derivatives were slightly less active against the test cell lines. Overall, these results suggest that the indole-3-thiocyanate motif can be suitably decorated to afford highly cytotoxic compounds and that the substituted indole can be employed as a useful scaffold toward more potent compounds. Fil: Fortes, Margiani P.. Universidade Federal de Santa Maria; Brasil Fil: da Silva, Paulo B. N.. Universidade Federal de Pernambuco; Brasil Fil: Da Silva, Teresinha G.. Universidade Federal de Pernambuco; Brasil Fil: Kaufman, Teodoro Saul. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Rosario. Instituto de Química Rosario. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Bioquímicas y Farmacéuticas. Instituto de Química Rosario; Argentina Fil: Militão, Gardenia C. G.. Universidade Federal de Pernambuco; Brasil Fil: Silveira, Claudio C.. Universidade Federal de Santa Maria; Brasil