The potential of achiral sponge-derived and synthetic bromoindoles as selective cytotoxins against PANC-1 tumor cells.

Our quest to isolate and characterize natural products with in vitro solid tumor selectivity is driven by access to repositories of Indo-Pacific sponge extracts. In this project an extract of a species of Haplosclerida sponge obtained from the US NCI Natural Products Repository displayed, by in vitro disk diffusion assay (DDA) and IC50 determinations, selective cytotoxicity with modest potency to a human pancreatic cancer cell line (PANC-1) relative to the human lymphoblast leukemia cell line (CCRF-CEM). Two brominated indoles, the known 6-bromo conicamin (1) and the new derivative, 6-Br-8-keto-conicamin A (2), were identified and 2 (IC50 1.5 μM for the natural product vs 4.1 μM for the synthetic material) was determined to be responsible for the cytotoxic activity of the extract against the PANC-1 tumor cell line. The new natural product and ten additional analogs were prepared for further SAR testing.