Anti-hepatitis B virus and anti-cancer activities of novel isoflavone analogs.

We have synthesized a series of novel isoflavone analogs and evaluated their anti-HBV and anti-cancer activities in vitro. The bioassays showed that the majority of the resultant compounds exerted inhibitory effects on HBsAg and HBeAg levels, HBV DNA replication, as well as the growth of four human cancer cell lines to various extents, which supported the rationale of the design. In particular, compound 8f showed the highest activity against HBV infection and HBV-related liver cancer. Compound 7l (IC50 = 0.47 μM) also exerted remarkable inhibitory effect on the growth lung cancer cell line A-549.