Multi-substituted N-phenyl-2, 2-dichloroacetamide analogues as anti-cancer drugs: design, synthesis and biological evaluation.

Our earlier research has shown that mono-substituted N-phenyl-2, 2-dichloroacetamide exhibited much higher anti-cancer activity than the lead compound sodium dichloroacetate (DCA). In this paper, a variety of multi-substituted N-phenyl-2, 2-dichloroacetamides were synthesized and biologically evaluated. The results showed that 3, 5-disubstituted N-phenyl-2, 2-dichloroacetamide analogues had satisfactory potency. Among them, N-(3, 5-diiodophenyl)-2, 2-dichloroacetamide had an IC50 of 2.84 micromol x L(-1) against non-small cell lung cancer cell line A549 and could induce cancer cell apoptosis.