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 microM) 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 microM. Among those three compounds, only compound 3b showed a selective cytostatic effect on HeLa in comparison with normal fibroblasts.