Design, synthesis, molecular docking, and biological evaluation of N-methyl-3-nitro-4-(nitromethyl)-4H-chromen-2-amine derivatives as potential anti-cancer agents

A series of N-methyl-3-nitro-4-(nitromethyl)-4H-chromen-2-amine derivatives 8 were synthesized from 2-((E)-2-nitrovinyl)phenol 7 and ((E)-N-methyl)-1-(methylthio)-2-nitroethenamine 5. The cytotoxic activity of these molecules was tested against two cancer cell lines namely HeLa (cervical cancer) and HEp-2 (epidermoid laryngeal carcinoma). Among them, two molecules (4H-chromenes 8h and 8i) displayed potent anti-proliferative activity with IC₅₀ values of 115.04 and 18.96 μM for HeLa and 86.94 and 25.08 μM for Hep-2 cell lines, respectively. Morphological evaluation of the cell lines revealed that both 8h and 8i induce the apoptotic process. Molecular docking studies of all the 4H-chromenes 8 with anti-apoptotic Bcl-2, Bcl-w, and Bcl-xL proteins revealed that the 4H-chromenes 8h and 8i have good docking score and thus corroborated in vitro studies. Furthermore, evaluation of Lipinski and ADMET properties revealed their drug-like pharmacokinetic profiles. Thus, 4H-chromenes 8h and 8i exhibit promising anti-cancer properties and can be used as lead compounds for further development.