Compound (499) exhibited moderate cytotoxicity against the tumor cell line P-388 murine leukemia cell (IC50 46 µM).
Murine leukemia cell line P-388 have been used, before an enlarged screening panel to tumors cell lines of other origins has been applied for cytotoxicity testing [29].
Compound 4a was the strongest inhibitor for P388 (murine leukemia cell), while 3a was the most cytotoxic one against A549 (human lung cancer cell).
A6 exhibited the highest in vitro antitumor activity against human lung cancer cell (A549) and A4 was the most active one against murine leukemia cell (P388).
At a concentration of 100 μM, all these phenazine derivatives (but A2 and A6) exhibited an inhibitory activity toward topoisomerase I. A6 had efficient antitumor activities against both human lung cancer cell (A549) and murine leukemia cell (P388).
These complexes showed comparable cytotoxicity to cisplatin against the murine leukemia cell line (P-388) and the human non-small-cell lung cancer cell line (A-549), and could potentially form monofunctional adducts with DNA.
