Cytotoxicity of new n-butylamino and sulfur-containing derivatives of polyfluorinated 1,4-naphthoquinone.

Four new n-butylamino and two sulfur-containing derivatives of polyfluoro-1,4-naphthoquinone were synthesized and their mutagenic and antioxidant properties in Salmonella cells, as well as the cytotoxicity in human myeloma (RPMI 8226), human mammary adenocarcinoma (MCF-7), mouse fibroblasts (LMTK) and primary mouse fibroblast cells (PMF) were studied. 2-n-Butylamino-3,5,6,7,8-pentafluoro-1,4-naphthoquinone (1) showed efficient inhibition of the growth of the tumor cells. 2,8-Di-(n-butyl-amino)-3,5,6,7-tetrafluoro-1,4-naphthoquinone (2) had significantly less growth-inhibiting properties, while 2,6-di-(n-butylamino)-3,5,7,8-tetrafluoro-1,4-naphthoquinone (3) and 2,6,8-tri-(n-butylamino)-3,5,7-tetrafluoro-1,4-naphthoquinone (4), demonstrated very low cytotoxicity. Compounds 1 and 2 were remarkably less cytotoxic while compound 3 and 4 were not cytotoxic toward LMTK and PMF cells as compared with tumor human cell lines. Cytotoxicity of 2-(2'-methylthioethyl)amino-3,5,6,7,8-pentafluoro-1,4-naphthoquinone (5) and (2,2'-dithiodi-2)-3,5,6,7,8-pentafluoro-1,4-naphthoquinone-2-ylamino)ethan (6) toward mammalian cells was compared with that for compounds 1 and 2. Copyright 2009 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.