An insight into synthetic Schiff bases revealing antiproliferative activities in vitro

Abilities of a large number of diversified synthetic Schiff bases of aldimine- and ketimine-types to inhibit the in vitro proliferation rate of human cancer cell lines are reviewed and discussed taking into account the substitution pattern within the sets of different templates studied. A number of them have revealed promising antiproliferative activities against various human tumour cells. The existing structure libraries of these compounds might be undoubtedly of particular interest for further fruitful modification in the rational design of novel antitumour active azomethine lead structures being promising for further development. Schiff bases or azomethines are among the most important groups of biomolecules. These compounds have been found to reveal both remarkable biological activities and a variety of valuable practical applications. An interest in the exploration of novel series of synthetic Schiff bases has undoubtedly been growing due to their proven utility as attractive lead structures for the design of novel cytotoxic and cytostatic agents with a mechanism of action that sometimes differs from that of clinically authorized anticancer agents. Therefore, in the present paper we have focussed our attention on the collected synthetic simple Schiff bases of aldimine- and ketimine-types revealing anticancer activities in vitro, that have been described in the scientific literature during the last decade, and on structural variations whose affect the antiproliferative activity in sets of the designed molecules.