Synthesis and anticancer activity of novel tetralin-6-ylpyridine and tetralin-6-ylpyrimidine derivatives.

A series of tetralin-6-ylpyridines and tetralin-6-ylpyrimidines was newly synthesized starting from 1-(1,2,3,4-tetrahydronaphthalen-6-yl)ethanone (1). The two groups of derivatives incorporated also different five membered nitrogen-containing heterocycles. The anticancer activity of some of the prepared compounds was evaluated using two human tumor cell lines, representing liver and breast. The compounds tested were, in most of cases, selective towards liver cancer, where the most potent compound showed IC50 = 1.01 microg/mL.