Arylidenes of Quinolin-2-one scaffold as Erlotinib analogues with activities against leukemia through inhibition of EGFR TK/ STAT-3 pathways

[Display omitted] •A new series of 6-substiuted-quinolin-2-ones 6a-o have been synthesized.•The structure was proved by 1H NMR, 13C NMR, 2D NMR, mass and elemental analyses.•In vitro cytotoxic activity screening against 60 cancer cell lines according to NCI protocol while the most active were examined against the most sensitive leukemia RPMI-8226 and on healthy cell lines.•Compound 6l was the most active one; with IC50 = 15.72 ± 1.21 and 46.05 ± 2.36 μM against RPMI-8226 and normal cell lines, respectively and also showed cell cycle arrest at G2/M phase.•Molecular modeling studies supported the results; the study illustrated the effect of several factors on compounds activity. A new series of 6-substiuted-4-(2-(4-substituted-benzylidene)hydrazinyl)quinolin-2(1H)-one derivatives have been designed and synthesized. The structure of the synthesized compounds was proved by 1H NMR, 13C NMR, 2D NMR, mass and elemental analyses. The target compounds were evaluated for their in vitro cytotoxic activity against 60 cancer cell lines according to NCI protocol. Consequently, the most active compounds were further examined against the most sensitive leukemia RPMI-8226 and on healthy cell lines. 6-Chloro-derivative was the most active one; with IC50 = 15.72 ± 1.21 and 46.05 ± 2.36 μM against RPMI-8226 and normal cell lines, respectively. Also, it showed a remarkable inhibitory activity compared to gefitinib on the EGFR TK mutant, wild and on H-RAS in addition to STAT-3 with IC50 = 695.49 ± 21.8, 263.15 ± 15.13, 10.61 ± 0.27 and 1.753 ± 0.81 nM, respectively. Cell cycle analysis of RPMI-8226 cells treated with the 6-chloro-derivative showed cell cycle arrest at G2/M phase (supported by Caspases-3,8, BAX and Bcl-2 studies) with a significant pro-apoptotic activity as indicated by annexin V-FITC staining. Moreover, the docking studies ROCS analysis and Tanimoto scores supported the results. The study illustrated the effect of several factors on compounds activity.