Synthesis and anticancer activity of some novel tetralin-6-yl-pyrazoline, 2-thioxopyrimidine, 2-oxopyridine, 2-thioxo-pyridine and 2-iminopyridine derivatives.

The title compounds were prepared by reaction of 6-acetyltetralin (1) with different aromatic aldehydes 2a-c, namely 2,6-dichlorobenzaldehyde, 2,6-diflouro-benzaldehyde, and 3-ethoxy-4-hydroxybenzaldehyde, to yield the corresponding a,b-unsaturated ketones 3a-c. Compound 3b was reacted with hydrazine hydrate to yield the corresponding 2-pyrazoline 4, while compounds 3a,b reacted with thiourea to afford the 2-thioxopyrimidine derivatives 5a,b, respectively. The reaction of 1, and the aromatic aldehydes 2a-c with ethyl cyanoacetate, 2-cyano-thioacetamide or malononitrile in the presence of ammonium acetate yielded the corresponding 2-oxopyridines 6a,b, 2-thioxopyridines 7a-c or 2-iminopyridines 8a,b, respectively. The newly prepared compounds were evaluated for anticancer activity against two human tumor cell lines. Compound 3a showed the highest potency with IC(50) = 3.5 and 4.5 μg/mL against a cervix carcinoma cell line (Hela) and breast carcinoma cell line (MCF7), respectively.