Mechanistic investigations on substituted benzene sulphonamides as apoptosis inducing anticancer agents

In an approach to develop potent cytotoxic compounds with targeted action, a systematic methodology was employed to design and initially synthesize parent compounds A1, A8, A13 and A14 followed by synthesis of further analogs of A1 (A2-A7) and A8 (A9-A12) with characterization by IR, NMR, mass and elemental techniques. These compounds were evaluated for their in vitro anti-proliferative activities against DU-145, MCF-7, HCT-15, HT-29 cell lines and apoptosis inducing potential via various mechanistic studies. Compounds A2, A9, A10 exhibited significant cytotoxic activities compared to their parent compounds and standard drug 5-fluorouracil. Compound A2 displayed superior cytotoxicity with IC₅₀ values less than 1 µM in most of the tested cell lines. Further, compound A2 also induced apoptosis in DU-145 cells as exemplified from DAPI staining, Annexin V-FITC assay, ROS generation and mitochondrial membrane alteration studies. The above studies depict the synthesized compound A2 as potent anticancer agent with the ability to induce apoptosis in prostate cancerous cells.