Facile synthesis and anti-proliferative activity evaluation of quinoxaline derivatives

A series of "drug-like" compounds based on quinoxaline scaffold with arylsulfonyl hydrazinyl, arylformyl hydrazinyl or arylsulfonyl groups at C-2 and aryloxy groups at C-3, were synthesized in 4 or 5 steps involving cyclization, chlorination and coupling reactions. Cellular anti-proliferative activities of these quinoxaline derivatives in vitro were determined, which revealed that the inhibitory potency and selectivity of 6f was comparable to that of the positive control.