Solvent-Free Synthesis of Acridone Based Dihydropyrazine Derivatives Using CuFe2O4 Nanoparticles as Heterogeneous Catalyst: Molecular Docking and In-vitro Studies as Anticancer Agents

Nowadays, acridone based heterocycles have attracted the attention of the scientific community as these are one of the most important structural moieties in the domains of pharmacy and medicinal chemistry due to their broad biological actions. Because of their planar structure, acridones can more easily form complexes with DNA and RNA chains and interact with nucleotides more readily, making them effective anticancer agents. In this connection, we have introduced an efficient solvent free protocol for the synthesis of acridone based dihydropyrazine derivatives using reusable CuFe 2 O 4 magnetic nanoparticles as a heterogeneous catalyst. The in-vitro evaluation of all these compounds revealed that the compounds are active against MDA-MB-231 (human breast adenocarcinoma cell line), HEK293 (human embryonic kidney normal cell line), and IMR 32 (human neuroblastoma cell line). In addition, molecular docking studies of all acridone derivatives have been studied against 1IGT, 2VWD and 1YYH proteins. This study expanded the previous selection of additional nitrogen heterocyclic fused acridone derivatives as anticancer drugs by including dihydropyrazine moiety with different fluoro or trifluoro methyl substituted benzyl groups.