Synthesis and cytotoxicity of substituted 2-benzylnaphth[2,3-d]imidazoles

Abstract Designed as a new series of so called “bivalent ligand” containing the proposed 2-benzylnaphthimidazole-type structure, a number of 2-benzylnaphth[2,3- d ]imidazoles, bearing various substituents, have been prepared by a synthetic approach involving an heterocyclization of 2,3-diaminonaphthalene 4 with appropriate imidates 3 (for 1b – i ) followed by alkylation (for 1j – l ) with the desired alkylating agent. Compounds 1b – f , h – l were subjected to primary biological evaluation for cancer cell growth inhibition (one-dose, three-cell assay), and the four most active terms, 1c , h , i and j , were then evaluated for their cytotoxic profiles in the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) human disease-oriented, 60 cell line, in vitro antitumor screening protocol. Among them, two compounds ( 1h and 1i ) are the most representatives demonstrating not only high growth-inhibitory activities against some leukemia cancer cells, but also fairly good activities against the growth of certain cell lines of some solid tumors.