Acylated mono-, bis- and tris- cinchona-based amines containing ferrocene or organic residues: synthesis, structure and in vitro antitumor activity on selected human cancer cell lines

A series of novel functionalized mono-, bis- and tris-(S)-{[(2S,4R,8R)-8-ethyl-quinuclidin-2-yl](6-methoxyquinolin-4-yl)}methanamines including ferrocene-containing derivatives was obtained by the reaction of the precursor amine with a variety of acylation agents. Their in vitro antitumor activity was investigated against human leukemia (HL-60), human neuroblastoma (SH-SY5Y), human hepatoma (HepG2) and human breast cancer (MCF-7) cells by the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT)-assay and the 50% inhibitory concentration (IC(50)) values were determined. Our data indicate that the precursor amine has no antitumor activity in vitro, but the bis-methanamines with ureido-, thioureido and amide-type linkers display attractive in vitro cytotoxicity and cytostatic effects on HL-60, HepG2, MCF-7 and SH-SY5Y cells. Besides 1H- and 13C-NMR methods the structures of the new model compounds were also studied by DFT calculations.