Design, Synthesis, and Biological Evaluation of Aromatic Amide-Substituted Benzimidazole-Derived Chalcones. The Effect of Upregulating TP53 Protein Expression.

A series of benzimidazole-derived chalcones containing aromatic amide substituent were designed and synthesized. All of the chalcone compounds were tested for their in vitro antitumor activity against human cancer cell lines (HCT116, HepG2, A549, and CRL-5908). The antiproliferative activity of compounds 3, 6, 9, 14, 15, 16 against HCT116 cells was significantly better than that that of 5-Fluorouracil (IC50: 94.63 mu M). The antitumor activity of these compounds showed obvious differences between the wild type HCT116 and mutant HCT116 (TP53(-/-)) cells. A preliminary mechanistic study suggested that these compounds act by upregulating the expression of TP53 protein in tumor cells without inhibiting the MDM2-TP53 interaction.