Novel synthetic chalcones induce apoptosis in the A549 non-small cell lung cancer cells harboring a KRAS mutation.

A series of novel chalcones were synthesized by the Claisen-Schmidt condensation reaction of tetralones and 5-/6-indolecarboxaldehydes. Treatment of human lung cancer cell line harboring KRAS mutation (A549) with the chalcones induced dose-dependent apoptosis. Cell cycle analyses and Western blotting suggested the critical role of the chalcones in interrupting G2/M transition of cell cycle. SAR study demonstrated that substituent on the indole N atom significantly affects the anticancer activity of the chalcones, with methyl and ethyl providing the more active compounds (EC50: 110-200nM), Compound 1g was found to be >4-fold more active in the A549 cells (EC50: 110nM) than in prostate (PC3) or pancreatic cancer (CLR2119, PAN02) cells. Furthermore, compound 1l selectively induced apoptosis of lung cancer cells A549 (EC50: 0.55μM) but did not show measurable toxicity in the normal lung bronchial epithelial cells (hBEC) at doses as high as 10μM, indicating specificity towards cancer cells.