Design, synthesis and antibreast cancer MCF-7 cells biological evaluation of heterocyclic analogs of resveratrol.

A new series of resveratrol heterocyclic analogs (4a-m) were designed and synthesized, and their inhibitiory effects on MCF-7 cells were evaluated to investigate structure-activity relationship. The effects of these analogs on human breast cancer MCF-7 cells were also determined. Results showed that MCF-7 cells could be inhibited more potently by these analogs than by resveratrol (IC = 80.0 μM). Among the analogs, compounds 4c, 4e, and 4k showed a significantly higher activity (IC = 42.7, 48.1, and 43.4 μM) than resveratrol. Furthermore, the derivatives without additional heterocyclic structure in the 4'-OH position exhibited a more potent activity than that with addition heterocyclic structure. In addition, docking simulation was performed to adequately position compound 4c in a human F-ATPase active site to determine a probable binding model. These heterocyclic analogs could be effective candidates for the chemoprevention of human breast cancer.