Design, synthesis, and anticancer activity of novel berberine derivatives prepared via CuAAC “click” chemistry as potential anticancer agents

A series of novel derivatives of phenyl-substituted berberine triazolyls has been designed and synthesized via copper-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition click chemistry in an attempt to develop antitumor agents. All of the compounds were evaluated for anticancer activity against a panel of three human cancer cell lines, including MCF-7 (breast), SW-1990 (pancreatic), and SMMC-7721 (liver) and the noncancerous human umbilical vein endothelial cell (HUVEC) cell lines. The results indicated that most of the compounds displayed notable anticancer activities against the MCF-7 cells compared with berberine. Among these derivatives, compound 16 showed the most potent inhibitory activity against the SW-1990 and SMMC-7721 cell lines, with half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC(50)) values of 8.54±1.97 μM and 11.87±1.83 μM, respectively. Compound 36 exhibited the most potent inhibitory activity against the MCF-7 cell line, with an IC(50) value of 12.57±1.96 μM. Compound 16 and compound 36 exhibited low cytotoxicity in the HUVEC cell line, with IC(50) values of 25.49±3.24 μM and 30.47±3.47 μM. Furthermore, compounds 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 32, and 36 exhibited much better selectivity than berberine toward the normal cell line HUVEC.