Abstract
In this study, a series of novel N-substituted 2-(2-(adamantan-1-yl)-1H-indol-3-yl)-2-oxoacetamide derivatives were synthesized, and evaluated for their cytotoxicity in human cell lines including Hela (cervical cancer), MCF7 (breast cancer ) and HepG2 (liver cancer). Several compounds were found to have potent anti-proliferative activity against those human cancer cell lines and compound 5r showed the most potent biological activity against HepG2 cells with an IC50 value of 10.56 ± 1.14 μΜ. In addition, bioassays showed that compound 5r induced time-dependent and dose-dependent cleavage of poly ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP), and also induced a dose-dependent increase in caspase-3 and caspase-8 activity, but had little effect on caspase-9 protease activity in HepG2 cells. These results provide evidence that 5r-induced apoptosis in HepG2 cell is caspase-8-dependent.