Anticancer Active Heterocyclic Chalcones: Recent Developments.

BACKGROUND: Chalcones are structurally simple compounds that are easily accessible by synthetic methods. Heterocyclic chalcones have gained the interest of scientists due to their diverse biological activities. The anti-tumor activities of heterocyclic chalcones are especially remarkable and the growing number of publications dealing with this topic warrants an up-to-date compilation.
METHODS: Search for antitumor active heterocyclic chalcones was carried out using Pubmed and Scifinder as common web-based literature searching tools. Pertinent and current literature was covered from 2015/2016 to 2019. Chemical structures, biological activities and modes of action of anti-tumor active heterocyclic chalcones are summarized.
RESULTS: Simply prepared chalcones have emerged over the last years with promising antitumor activities. Among them, there are a considerable number of tubulin polymerization inhibitors. But there are also new chalcones targeting special enzymes such as histone deacetylases or with DNA-binding properties.
CONCLUSION: This review provides a summary of recent heterocyclic chalcone derivatives with distinct antitumor activities. Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.net.