Cytostatic and Antiviral Activity Evaluations of Hydroxamic Derivatives of Some Non‐steroidal Anti‐inflammatory Drugs

Non‐steroidal anti‐inflammatory drugs (NSAID) pharmacophores are interesting in designing potential anticancer drugs. Indeed, numerous experimental, epidemiologic and clinical studies suggest that NSAIDs are promising anticancer drugs. Herein, NSAID hydroxamic acids 3a‐i were prepared by a new synthetic procedure and evaluated for their antiviral and cytostatic activity against malignant tumor cell lines and normal human fibroblasts (WI38). Antiviral activity evaluation results indicated that 3f had only a minor activity against the influenza virus A/H1N1 subtype with a selectivity index of 7–10. On the other hand, the results of the in vitro cytostatic activity evaluations revealed that the majority of NSAID hydroxamic acid derivatives 3a – i exhibited a strong non‐specific antiproliferative effect at the highest concentration (100 μm ) on the tested cell line panel. Only compounds 3b , 3e and 3i exerted a differential dose‐dependent inhibitory activity against the growth of HeLa cells (p < 0.05) at concentration 10 μm . Among those three compounds, only compound 3b showed a selective cytostatic effect on HeLa in comparison with normal fibroblasts.