Synthesis and Antitumor Evaluation of 6-Aryl-substituted benzo[j]phenanthridine- and Benzo[g]pyrimido[4,5-c]isoquinolinequinones

A variety of novel 6-arylsubstituted benzo[j]phenanthridine- and benzo[g]-pyrimido[4,5-c]isoquinolinequinones were synthesized from 1,4-naphthoquinone, aryl-aldehydes and enaminones via a two-step synthetic approach. The cytotoxic activity of the aminoquinone derivatives was evaluated in vitro against one normal cell line (MRC-5 lung fibroblasts) and three human cancer cell lines (AGS human gastric adenocarcinoma; SK-MES-1 human lung cancer cells, and J82 human bladder carcinoma) in 72-h drug exposure assays using the MTT colorimetric method. Structure–activity relationships within the series of angular quinones reveal that the insertion of pyrrol-2-yl and furan-2-yl groups at the 6-position is more significant for the increase of the potency and selectivity index of the pharmacophores.