“…It has been reported that tryptophan obtained from food sources is usually converted to indole by gastrointestinal bacteria, which is further oxidized in the liver by CYP450 to isatin, therefore, isatin is present as an endogenous molecule in humans [ 19 , 20 ]. Various substituents on the isatin nucleus displayed numerous biological activities [ 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 ], including antimicrobial activity[ 31 , 37 ], topoisomerase inhibitory activity [ 7 , 38 ], epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitory activity [ 39 ], inhibitory activities on histone deacetylase (HDAC) [ 40 , 41 ], carbonic anhydrase [ 42 , 43 , 44 ], tyrosine kinase [ 45 , 46 , 47 ], cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs) [ 9 , 48 , 49 ], adenylate cyclase inhibition [ 50 ] and protein tyrosine phosphatase (Shp2) [ 51 ]. A number of isatin-based marketed drugs and potential anticancer agents [ 41 ] are illustrated in Figure 1 .…”