High anticancer potency on tumor cells of dehydroabietylamine Schiff-base derivatives and a copper(II) complex.

Five bioactive dehydroabietylamine Schiff-base derivatives (L-L) had been synthesized from Dehydroabietylamine (L), and the complex Cu(L) had been obtained from the compound L and copper(II) acetate. Their activities against Hela (cervix), MCF-7 (breast), A549 (lung), HepG2 (liver) and HUVEC (umbilical vein, normal cell) in vitro were investigated. The toxicity of L-L and Cu(L) was all lower than L. For MCF-7 cell, L, L, L, L and Cu(L) had higher antitumor activity than L. The smallest IC value was 2.58 μM of L. For A549 cell, the IC value of the compound L was smaller than L, which indicated that the compound L had higher anti-A549 activity than L. For HepG2 cell, the IC value of L(0.24 μM) and L (0.14 μM) were much smaller than L, which suggested L and L had higher anti-HepG2 activity. L was 180 times more effective at inhibiting cultured HepG2 cells survival than normal cells, with average IC values of 0.14 and 25.56 μM. Furthermore, L, L and L contrasting with Doxorubicin had been measured with the ability to induce apoptosis. It turned out that L and L could induce more HepG2 cells apoptosis, which suggested they may be potential antitumor drugs.