Assessment of DNA Topoisomerase I Unwinding Activity, Radical Scavenging Capacity, and Inhibition of Breast Cancer Cell Viability of -alkyl-acridones and ,-dialkyl-9,9'-biacridylidenes.

The anticancer activity of acridone derivatives has attracted increasing interest, therefore, a variety of substituted analogs belonging to this family have been developed and evaluated for their anti-cancer properties. A series of -alkyl-acridones - and ,'-dialkyl-9,9'-biacridylidenes - with variable alkyl chains were examined for their topoisomerase I activity at neutral and acidic conditions as well as for their binding capacity to calf thymus and possible radical trapping antioxidant activity. It was found that at a neutral pH, topoisomerase I activity of both classes of compounds was similar, while under acidic conditions, enhanced intercalation was observed. -alkyl-acridone derivatives - exhibited stronger, dose-dependent, cytotoxic activity against MCF-7 human breast epithelial cancer cells than ,-dialkyl-9,9'-biacridylidenes -, revealing that conjugation of the heteroaromatic system plays a significant role on the effective distribution of the compound in the intracellular environment. Cellular investigation of long alkyl derivatives against cell migration exhibited 40-50% wound healing effects and cytoplasm diffusion, while compounds with shorter alkyl chains were accumulated both in the nucleus and cytoplasm. All ,-dialkyl-9,9'-biacridylidenes showed unexpected high scavenging activity towards DPPH or ABTS radicals which may be explained by higher stabilization of radical cations by the extended conjugation of heteroaromatic ring system.