Uses of cyclohexan-1,3-dione for the synthesis of tetrahydrochromeno[3,4-c]chromen derivatives with anti-tumor activities

Cyclohexan-1,3-dione ( 1 ) was used as the key starting material, which reacted with salicylaldehyde ( 2 ) and either malononitrile ( 3a ) or ethyl cyanoacetate ( 3b ) in ethanol containing a catalytic amount of triethylamine to give the 3,4,7,12b-tetrahydrochromeno3,4-c]chromen-1-one derivatives 5a , b . The latter compounds underwent Gewald's thiophene synthesis through the reaction with either malononitrile or ethyl cyanoacetate to give compounds 6a-d , respectively. On the other hand, compound 5a was used for the synthesis of annulated chromeno3,4-c]chromen derivatives through its reaction with different chemical reagents. The synthesized compounds were evaluated against the six cancer cell lines A549, HT-29, MKN-45, U87MG, SMMC-7721, and H460 using the standard MTT assay in vitro, with foretinib as the positive control, many compounds expressed high inhibitions. The most active compounds 5b , 6b , 6d , 7 , 9b , 11a , 11b , 13 , 17 , 18b , 20b , 21b , 21e , and 21f were selected for inhibition of five tyrosine kinases and some selected compounds for Pim-1 kinase inhibition. The results showed that compounds 6b , 6d , 11a , 13 , 17 , 20b , and 21e were the most potent compounds with the tyrosine kinases and compounds 6d , 11a , 20b , and 21e were the most potent inhibitors of Pim-1 kinase.