Design, Synthesis and Anticancer Activity of Naphthoquinone Fused Dihydropyridine Derivatives: In Silico and In Vitro Studies

In pursuit of novel anticancer agents, herein we have designed and synthesized novel benzoyl-linked dihydropyridine derivatives fused with naphthoquinone moiety (4a-4h) through a one-pot multicomponent reaction of aryl glyoxal, acyclic 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds and 2-amino-1,4-naphthoquinone in acetic acid under reflux condition. Characterization was done by Fourier-transform infrared, proton nuclear magnetic resonance (¹H NMR), carbon-13 NMR (¹³C NMR), high-resolution mass spectrometry and single crystal X-ray diffraction. Subsequently, we conducted comprehensive molecular docking studies, focusing primarily on the STAT pathway, an important signalling cascade associated with breast cancer. The Protein Data Bank provided the structural coordinates for the pertinent proteins in this work, which were 2J6M, 3ERT, 4DRH, 1M17, 5ZAD and 1H6V. Our results offer strong scientific support for compounds 4a, 4c and 4d as promising candidates for breast cancer treatment. The synthesized compounds were then rigorously evaluated in vitro for their inhibitory effects on MCF-7 breast cancer cell lines. Among the tested compounds, 4c and 4d showed the most promise, exhibiting strong potency with notable inhibitory activity. Their half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC₅₀) values were determined to be 4.54 and 17.48 µM, respectively, whereas the standard drug tamoxifen exhibited an IC₅₀ of 9.25 µM. These results highlight the significant potential of these compounds as therapeutic agents for breast cancer treatment.