Design, synthesis and biological evaluation of water soluble and non-aggregated silicon phthalocyanines, naphthalocyanines against A549, SNU-398, SK-MEL128, DU-145, BT-20 and HFC cell lines as potential anticancer agents.

Cancer has become an important public problem in worldwide since cancer incidence and mortality are growing rapidly. In this study, water soluble and non-aggregated silicon (IV) phthalocyanines and naphthalocyanines containing (3,5-bis{3-[3-(diethylamino)phenoxy]propoxy}phenyl)methoxy groups have been synthesized and characterized to investigate their anticancer potential. Their DNA binding/nuclease, topoisomerases inhibition were investigated using UV-Vis absorption, thermal denaturation and agarose gel electrophoresis. The in vitro cytotoxic properties of the compounds on human lung (A549), breast (BT-20), liver (SNU-398), prostate (DU-145), melanoma (SK-Mel 128) carcinoma and human fibroblast (HFC) normal cell lines were evaluated by using MTT assay. In order to determine the mechanism of cancer cell growth suppression, cell cycle analysis was carried out using flow cytometer on A549 cell line. The K _b values of SiPc1a and SiNc2a were 6.85 ± (0.35) × 10 ⁶ and 1.72 ± (0.16) × 10 ⁴ M ^-1 and T _m values of ct-DNA were calculated as 82.02 °C and 78.07 °C, respectively in the presence of both compounds. The Δ _Tm values of SiPc1a and SiNc2a were calculated as 6.45 and 2.50 °C, respectively. The nuclease effects of SiPc1a and SiNc2a with supercoiled plasmid pBR322 DNA demonstrated that both compounds did not trigger any DNA nuclease effects at the lowest concentrations without irradiation whereas both compounds in the presence of activating agent (H ₂ O ₂ ) showed significant plasmid DNA nuclease actions under irradiation (22.5 J/cm ² ). SiPc1a and SiNc2a inhibited to topoisomerase I on increasing concentrations whilst they had lower inhibition action toward topoisomerase II that of topoisomerase I. The in vitro cytotoxicity studies displayed that SiPc1a had the highest cytotoxic effects among the tested compounds against A549, SNU-398, SK-MEL128, DU-145, BT-20 and HFC cell lines with CC ₅₀ values ranged from 0.49 to 2.99 µM. Furthermore, SiPc1a inhibited cell proliferation by cell cycle arrest in G ₀ /G ₁ phase. All of these results suggested that SiPc1a is a promising candidate as an anticancer agent.
(Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)