Antiproliferative Activity of Polyether Antibiotic--Cinchona Alkaloid Conjugates Obtained via Click Chemistry.

A series of eight new conjugates of salinomycin or monensin and Cinchona alkaloids were obtained by the Cu(I)-catalysed 1,3-dipolar Huisgen cycloaddition (click chemistry) of respective N-propargyl amides of salinomycin or monensin with four different Cinchona alkaloid derived azides. In vitro antiproliferative activity of these conjugates evaluated against three cancer cell lines (LoVo, LoVo/DX, HepG2) showed that four of the compounds exhibited high antiproliferative activity (IC50 below 3.00 μm) and appeared to be less toxic and more selective against normal cells than two standard anticancer drugs.