Synthesis, cytotoxicity and structure-activity relationship study of terpyridines.

For the development of novel antitumor agents, we designed and synthesized terpyridines, and their biological activities were evaluated. Although most of the newly prepared terpyridines showed strong cytotoxicity against several human cancer cell lines, [2,2′; 6′, 2″]-terpyridine displayed the most significant cytotoxicity.