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Updated: May 22, 2026

Functionalized Spirocyclic Heterocycle Synthesis and Cytotoxicity Assay
Published on: February 9, 2021
Synthesis of chalcones with anticancer activities
Suvitha Syam1, Siddig Ibrahim Abdelwahab, Mohammed Ali Al-Mamary
1UPM-MAKNA Cancer Research Lab, Institute of Bioscience, University Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
Abstract:
Several chalcones were synthesized and their in vitro cytotoxicity against various human cell lines, including human breast adenocarcinoma cell line MCF-7, human lung adenocarcinoma cell line A549, human prostate cancer cell line PC3, human adenocarcinoma cell line HT-29 (colorectal cancer) and human normal liver cell line WRL-68 was evaluated. Most of the compounds being active cytotoxic agents, four of them with minimal IC₅₀ values were chosen and studied in detail with MCF-7 cells. The compounds 1, 5, 23, and 25 were capable in eliciting apoptosis in MCF-7 cells as shown by multiparameter cytotoxicity assay and caspase-3/7, -8, and -9 activities (p < 0.05). The ROS level showed 1.3-fold increase (p < 0.05) at the low concentrations used and thus it was concluded that the compounds increased the ROS level eventually leading to apoptosis in MCF-7 cells through intrinsic as well as extrinsic pathways.
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