RESEARCH ARTICLE
C4-Substituted Isoquinolines: Synthesis and Cytotoxic Action
A Tsotinis*, 1, S Zouroudis1, D Moreau2, C Roussakis2
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2007Volume: 1
First Page: 1
Last Page: 3
Publisher ID: TOMCJ-1-1
DOI: 10.2174/1874104500701010001
Article History:
Received Date: 20/6/2007Revision Received Date: 29/6/2007
Acceptance Date: 29/6/2007
Electronic publication date: 19/7/2007
Collection year: 2007

Abstract
A facile synthesis of the C4-substituted isoquinolines 5a-c and 6a-c is described. Commercially available 4-bromoisoquinoline is converted to the α,β-unsaturated esters 8 and 10 on treatment with the appropriate acrylate ester under Heck reaction conditions. The saturated amides 5a-c were obtained from the reaction of ester 9 with the requisite primary amine. Similarly the unsaturated analogues 6a-c were prepared by reacting ester 10 with the appropriate amine. The cytotoxicity of the target molecules was evaluated in two tumour cell lines in vitro. Two compounds, 6b and 6c, showed sufficient activity in the human non-small cell lung cancer line NSCLC-N16-L16 to be worthy of further study.