No abstract

The reaction rates for the nucleophilic aromatic substitution of 4,6-dichloro-5-nitrobenzofuroxan 1 with eight aliphatic amines (characterized by very different basicities/nucleophilicities) and three anilines have been measured in both methanol and toluene. The obtained rates have been related to the basicity (pK aH in water and K b in benzene) or nucleophilicity (N Mayr constants) of the tested amines. The whole of the obtained kinetic data has furnished useful information on the high nucleophilic reactivity of benzofuroxan derivatives, which has been related essentially to two factors: the high electron-drawing ability/power of the condensed furoxan ring and the low aromatic character of the benzofuroxan system.

A library of novel 2-(het)arylpyrrolidine-1-carboxamides were obtained via a modular approach based on the intramolecular cyclization/Mannich-type reaction of N-(4,4-diethoxybutyl)ureas. Their anti-cancer activities both in vitro and in vivo were tested. The in vitro activity of some compounds towards M-Hela tumor cell lines was twice that of the reference drug tamoxifen, whereas cytotoxicity towards normal Chang liver cell did not exceed the tamoxifen toxicity. In vivo studies showed that the number of surviving animals on day 60 of observation was up to 83% and increased life span (ILS) was up to 447%. Additionally, some pyrrolidine-1-carboxamides possessing a benzofuroxan moiety obtained were found to effectively suppress bacterial biofilm growth. Thus, these compounds are promising candidates for further development both as anti-cancer and anti-bacterial agents.