Synthesis of acridine cyclic imide hybrid molecules and their evaluation for anticancer activity

9-Amino acridine derivatives ( 1a – e) on condensation with dihydrofuran-2,5-dione, hexahydroisobenzofuran-1,3-dione and isochroman-1,3-dione under microwave irradiation gave corresponding condensation products 2a – e , 3a – e and 4a – e , respectively, in good yields. All these compounds were screened in vitro for anticancer activity against five human cancer cell lines, i.e., breast (T47D), lung (NCl H-522), colon (HCT-15), ovary (PA-1) and liver (Hep G2). Compounds 1-(3-methoxyacridine-9-yl) pyrrolidine-2,5-dione ( 2d) (ovary PA-1), 2-(2-methylacridine-9-yl)hexahydro-1 H -isoindole-1,3(2 H )-dione ( 3b) (lung NCl H-522), 2-(4-methylacridine-9-yl)hexahydro-1 H -isoindole-1,3(2 H )-dione (3c) (ovary PA-1), 2-(4-methoxyacridine-9-yl)hexahydro-1 H -isoindole-1,3(2 H )-dione ( 3e) (ovary PA-1) and 2-(2-methylacridine-9-yl)isoquinoline-1,3(2 H ,4 H )-dione ( 4b) (ovary PA-1) exhibited IC 50 values 7.1, 8.0, 5.4, 10.0 and 6.56 µM, respectively, and hence possess good anticancer activity.