Biological Activity of Some Cyanobiphenyl Derivatives

We investigated biological activity of a homologous series of 4-cyano-4'-(ω)-hydroxyalkyloxy)biphenyl. The amphiphilic compounds with a nematic phase were found to exhibit marked inhibition of cell proliferation of A549 human lung carcinoma cell lines, although they showed no such inhibition against WI-38 normal fibroblast cell lines under identical conditions.