Novel Synthesis of Nicotinamide Derivatives with Cytotoxic Properties

In the 2006 study, researchers successfully synthesized a series of 2-substituted-4,6-diaryl-3-pyridinecarboxamides and evaluated their cytotoxic effects against a panel of 59 different human tumor cell lines. These cell lines represented a range of cancers, including leukemia, melanoma, and cancers of the lung, colon, brain, ovary, breast, prostate, and kidney. The chemical synthesis involved a base-catalyzed Michael addition followed by an aromatic nucleophilic substitution. The results indicated that many of the new compounds exhibited significant in vitro antitumor activity. Specifically, compounds 5c and 7a showed moderate activity against most of the tested cell lines. Notably, all the nicotinamide derivatives demonstrated promising antitumor effects against the MDA-MB-231/ATCC breast cancer cell line. The study concluded that these synthesized nicotinamide derivatives hold potential as antitumor agents.