Crystallographic study and biological evaluation of 1,4-dimethyl-N-alkylcarbazoles

The 9-(bromoalkyl)-1,4-dimethyl-9H-carbazole (2a-d) derivatives, characterized by the presence of five or seven methylenic spacer groups bonded to the carbazole nitrogen, have been synthesized from the corresponding 1,4-dimethyl-9H-carbazole and appropriate dibromoalkane following a general synthetic method. All the prepared species have been fully characterized by means of IR, and 1H and 13C NMR spectroscopy, GC-MS and Elemental analysis. Good crystals of the 2c have been obtained and the crystal structure has been solved by means of X-ray diffractometry. In order to study the cytotoxic effect of 2a, 2b, 2c, 2d carbazole derivatives on A2780 ovarian cancer cells, we performed MTT assay after exposure of this cell population to those compounds in a concentration range from 1 to 10?M. Finally, we want to verify whether the cytotoxic effect of the 2c carbazole is mediated by apoptotic mechanisms, by performing chromatin condensation assay on the A2780 cell cultures upon the carbazole treatment at concentration of 10 ?M for 72h. All together our data demonstrate that carbazole derivatives exert inhibitory effects on ovarian cancer cell growth, highlighting a stronger and a dose-dependent anti proliferative activity displayed by 2c carbazole, designating this compound, as a better candidate in the treatment of human ovarian cancer.