Carbazole derivatives containing chalcone analogues targeting topoisomerase II inhibition: First principles characterization and QSAR modelling.

Recently, a series of carbazole derivatives containing chalcone analogues (CDCAs) were synthetized as potent anticancer agents and apoptosis inducers. These compounds target the inhibition of topoisomerase II and present cytotoxic activities. After comparison to experiment, we validated the use of B3LYP, a density functional theory-based approach, to describe the structure and molecular properties of the carbazole subunit and CDCAs compounds of interest. Then, we derived relationships between the chemical descriptors and activity of these carbazole derivatives using multi-parameter optimization and quantitative structure activity relationships (QSAR) approaches. For the QSAR studies, we used multiple linear regression and artificial neural network statistical modelling. Our predicted activities are in good agreement with the experimental ones. We found that the most important parameter influencing the activity of the considered compounds is the octanol-water partition coefficient, highlighting the importance of flexibility as a key molecular parameter to favor cell membrane crossing and enhance the action of these CDCAs against topoisomerase II. Our results provide useful guidelines for designing new oral active CDCAs medicaments for cytotoxic inhibition.