Background:
Isothiocyanates (ITCs) are small molecules that are important in synthetic organic
chemistry, but their actual importance lies in their potential as anti-carcinogens. Through this piece of work, an
effort was made to assess the anti-cancer activity of some simple ITCs which can be synthesized through easy
greener pathways.
Methods:
Cell proliferation assay was performed on ovarian cancer cells (PA-1) and non-tumorigenic ovarian
epithelial cells (IOSE-364). Furthermore, qRT-PCR for transcript expression levels of Spindlin1 and caspases in
ovarian cancer cells and cell cycle analysis was performed. In silico studies were incorporated to understand the
mode of ligand-protein interaction, ADME/Toxicity and drug-likeliness parameters. Density functional theory
studies have been also been employed on the ITCs to assess their efficiency in anticancer activity.
Results:
An inexpensive, environmentally benign pathway has been developed for synthesizing a series of ITCs.
Among the synthesized ITCs, NC6 showed better cytotoxic effects as compared to its counterparts. Novel findings
revealed that NC6 had 5-folds lower transcript expression levels of Spindlin1 and induced caspases 3 and 7
expressions assessed by qRT-PCR in ovarian cancer cells. Furthermore, flow cytometry assay showed the cell
cycle arrest at G1/S phase of cell cycle. The molecular docking studies revealed favorable binding affinities and
the physiochemical parameters were predicted to be compatible with drug-likeliness.
Conclusion:
The results demonstrated the possibility that small isothiocyanate molecules which can be synthesized
by a simple green methodology, can pose as promising candidates for their application as anticancer
agents.
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