Synthesis and structure-activity relationship study of 8-hydroxyquinoline- derived Mannich bases as anticancer agents

To continue our early study on the structural modifications of clioquinol, more 8-hydroxyquinoline-derived Mannich bases were synthesized and examined for growth-inhibitory effect. Taken Mannich base 1 as our lead compound, upon replacement of either sulfonyl group with methylene group or piperazine ring with ethylenediamine group resulted in an appreciable increase in potency. On the other hand, as 8-hydroxyquinoline was replaced with phenol, 3-hydroxypyridine and 1-naphthol, a dramatic decrease in activity was observed, indicating that 8-hydroxyquinoline is a crucial scaffold for activity. Further 3D-QSAR analysis on HeLa cells revealed that both steric and electronic effects contributed equally to growth inhibition. Taken together, the structure-activity relationships obtained from both in vitro data and CoMFA model warrant a valuable reference for further study.