Satish Manda

A series of new β-carboline-dithiocarbamate derivatives bearing phenyl, dithiocarbamate and H/methyl substitutions at position-1, 3 and 9, respectively, were designed and synthesized. These derivatives 8a-l and 13a-l and their starting precursors (7a-d and 12a-d) have been evaluated for their in vitro cytotoxic activity on selected human cancer cell lines. Among the derivatives tested, 7c, 12c, 8a, 8d, 8i, 8j, 8k, 8l and 13d-l exhibited considerable cytotoxicity against most of the tested cancer cell lines (IC50<10μM). Interestingly, most of the derivatives (8a-l and 13a-l) exhibited enhanced activity than their precursors (7a-d and 12a-d), which indicates that the combination of dithiocarbamate with β-carboline enhances the cytotoxicity of 8a-l and 13a-l. Moreover, the derivatives 8j and 13g exhibited significant cytotoxic activity with IC50 values of 1.34μM and 0.79μM on DU-145 cancer cells, respectively. Further, the induction of apoptosis by these derivatives was confirmed by Annexin V-FITC and Hoechst staining assays. However, both biophysical as well as molecular docking studies suggested a combilexin-type of interaction between these derivatives and DNA, unlike simple β-carbolines. With a view to understand their mechanism of action, DNA topoisomerase II (topo II) inhibition assay was also performed. Overall, the present study emphasizes the importance of linking a dithiocarbamate moiety to the β-carboline scaffold for exhibiting profound activity.

A series of new DNA-interactive C3-tethered 1,2,3-triazolo-β-carboline derivatives have been synthesized via 'click' reaction and evaluated for their in vitro cytotoxicity as well as DNA binding affinity. Interestingly, these hybrids have displayed potent in vitro cytotoxicity in comparison to Harmine against the HT-29 (colon cancer) and HGC-27 (gastric cancer) cell lines. The compounds 7f, 7k, 7n and 7s appear to be more effective against the HGC-27 cell line, among which compound 7f showed the highest cytotoxicity (5.44±0.58, IC50 μM). The compounds 7e and 7f appear to be more active against the HT-29 cell line, among which compound 7f exhibited the highest cytotoxicity (3.67±0.62, IC50 μM). To gain more insight into the DNA-binding ability, spectroscopic techniques such as UV-Visible, fluorescence and circular dichroism studies were performed. Viscosity measurements and molecular docking studies substantiate that these compounds indeed bind to DNA via the minor groove.