An efficient synthesis of O- and N- alkyl derivatives of 4-aminobenzoic acid and evaluation of their anticancer properties

AbstractA series of twenty alkyl derivatives (2–21) of 4-amino benzoic acid (1, PABA) have been prepared using potassium carbonate and opportune alkylating agents under simple and mild reaction conditions. Compounds (16–21) are reported for the first time. Electron impact mass spectrometry (EIMS), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and Proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H-NMR) spectroscopic techniques were adopted for the characterization of these analogues. In the present study, the cytotoxic screening of sixteen compounds (3, 5–11, 13 and 15–21) was also achieved against lung (NCI-H460) and oral squamous carcinoma (CAL-27) cell lines. Compound 20 has shown magnificent inhibitory properties against NCI-H460 cell line (IC50 15.59 and 20.04 µM, respectively) at a lower dose than that of the control (cisplatin; IC50 21.00 µM). One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), t-test and Pearson correlation coefficient (PCC) have been performed to determine the reliability of current data through statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS).Keywords: PABAalkylationanticancer drugoral squamous cell carcinomalung cell carcinomaANOVA AcknowledgementsI would like to acknowledge Dr. Ayaz Ahmed from PCMD, ICCBS, University of Karachi to perform cancer cell cytotoxicity. This study was supported by the Higher Education Commission (HEC), Pakistan for financial support under Indigenous 5000 Ph.D fellowship program.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.Additional informationFundingThe author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.