Synthesis, Characterization and Cytotoxicity Activity Study of Some Chalcones Derived from 2-(1,1-dimethyl-1,3-dihydro-2H-benzo[e]indol-2-ylidene)malonaldehyde

In this work, series of new chalcones derived from indole compounds were synthesized. In the first the compound 2-(1,1-dimethyl-1,3-dihydro-2H-benzo[e]indol-2-ylidene)malonaldehyde was synthesized from the reaction of 1,1,2-trimethyl-1H-benzo[e]indole with Phosphoryl chloride in in the presence of (DMF). Schiff base (C2) was prepared by reaction of 2-(1,1-dimethyl-1,3-dihydro-2H-benzo[e]indol-2-ylidene) malonaldehyde with 3-amino acetophenone and then the compounds (C3-C6) were synthesized by reacting compound (C2) with a different aryl aldehyde in the presence of potassium hydroxide. The chemical composition of the compounds was confirmed and characterized by spectroscopic techniques (FT-IR, 1H-NMR and13C-NMR). Target compounds with different concentrations were investigated for their cytotoxic activity against the human breast cancer cell line MCF7. The results showed that the compounds had promising cytotoxic activity against MCF7 cell line especially compound (2) which showed the highest inhibition at the rate of 100 µg/mL among the tested compounds at varied concentrations.