Design, synthesis and cytotoxicity of novel podophyllotoxin derivatives.

A series of novel podophyllotoxin derivatives were designed using association strategy and synthesized by coupling either podophyllotoxin (1) or 4 beta-amino podophyllotoxin (3) with substituted indol-3-yl-glyoxyl chlorides. Their structures were identified using spectroscopic techniques. These novel derivatives have been evaluated for cytotoxicity in vitro against four human cancer cell lines with comparison to the parent compounds 1, 3 and indibulin (2). Some of the compounds (7a, 7c) showed comparable cytotoxicity to that of podophyllotoxin.