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Updated: May 19, 2026

Functionalized Spirocyclic Heterocycle Synthesis and Cytotoxicity Assay
Published on: February 9, 2021
Synthesis and cytotoxic activity of non-naturally substituted 4-oxycoumarin derivatives
Silvia Serra1, Andrea Chicca, Giovanna Delogu
1Dipartimento di Scienze della Vita e dell'Ambiente, Sezione di Scienze del Farmaco, Università degli Studi di Cagliari, Via Ospedale 72, 09124 Cagliari, Italy. silvserra@tiscali.it
Abstract:
Coumarins are a large family of natural and synthetic compounds exerting different pharmacological effects, including cytotoxic, anti-inflammatory or antimicrobial. In the present communication we report the synthesis of a series of 12 diversely substituted 4-oxycoumarin derivatives including methoxy substituted 4-hydroxycoumarins, methyl, methoxy or unsubstituted 3-aryl-4-hydroxycoumarins and 4-benzyloxycoumarins and their anti-proliferative effects on breast adenocarcinoma cells (MCF-7), human promyelocytic leukemia cells (HL-60), human histiocytic lymphoma cells (U937) and mouse neuroblastoma cells (Neuro2a). The most potent bioactive molecule was the 4-hydroxy-5,7-dimethoxycoumarin (compound 1) which showed similar potency (IC(50) 0.2-2 μM) in all cancer cell lines tested. This non-natural product reveals a simple bioactive scaffold which may be exploited in further studies.
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