Synthesis and cytotoxic evaluation of novel simplified plinabulin-quinoline derivatives

A series of new plinabulin-quinoline derivatives and their simplified analogues was obtained from N,N′-diacetyl-2,5- diketopiperazines utilizing its aldol condensation with benzaldehydes. One compound showed strong activity related to three (KB, HepG2 and Lu) cancer cell lines while two other compounds demonstrated high potencies against breast carcinoma cell line (MCF-7).