Design, synthesis, characterization and anticancer activity evaluation of deoxycholic acid-chalcone conjugates

A series of deoxycholic acid-chalcone amides were synthesised and tested against the human lung cancer cell line, A549 and the cervical cancer cell line, SiHa. Among the synthesised deoxycholic acid-chalcone conjugates, some conjugates showed encouraging results as anticancer agents with good in vitro activity. More precisely, deoxycholic acid-chalcone conjugates 4b (IC50: 0.51 μM) and 4e (IC50: 0.84 μM) having 2‑nitrophenyl and 3,4,5‑trimethoxyphenyl groups exhibited a good activity against human cancer cell-line SiHa and while 4d (IC50: 0.25 μM) and 4b (IC50: 1.71 μM) showed better activity against A549 lung cancer cell line with respect to deoxycholic acid and chalcones. The anticancer activity of the bile acid conjugated chalcones was more than the activity of chalcone and deoxycholic acid alone. The results indicate that a bile acid conjugate strategy may be beneficial in improving the biological activity of chalcone derivatives. The enhanced activity of certain compounds may be due to their increased bioavailability.