A novel synthetic acanthoic acid analogues and their cytotoxic activity in cholangiocarcinoma cells.

A novel series of acanthoic acid analogues containing triazole moiety were synthesized through esterification and CuAAC reaction. Evaluation of their biological activities against four cell lines of cholangiocarcinoma cells showed that 3d exhibited the strongest activity with an IC value of 18 µM against KKU-213 cell line, which was 8 fold more potent than acanthoic acid. Interestingly, the triazole ring and nitro group on benzyl ring play very significant role in cytotoxic activity. The computational studies revealed that 3d occupies the binding energy of -12.7 and -10.8 kcal/mol with CDK-2 and EGFR protein kinases, respectively. This result might provide a beginning for the development of acanthoic acid analogues as an anticancer agent.