New pyridocarbazole derivatives. Synthesis and their in vitro anticancer activity

In this paper, we describe our results of the synthesis and biological testing of analogues of the natural alkaloids olivacine and ellipticine. We have synthesized fourteen new 1-substituted pyrido[4,3-b]carbazole derivatives. All of them were tested in vitro for their anticancer activity on three human tumor cell lines: CCRF/CEM (T lymphoblast leukemia), A549 (lung adenocarcinoma), and MCF7 (breast cancer). Cytotoxicity to non-cancer cells was estimated in cultures of the mice fibroblast cell line 3T3 BALB. The anticancer activity of 9-methoxy-5,6-dimethyl-1-[(1,1-bis-hydroxymethyI-propylamino)-methyl]-6H-pyrido[4,3-b]carbazole (compound 9) was the strongest amongst compounds tested on the three cancer cell lines; it was about 5 times higher than ellipticine and about 10% higher than doxorubicin.