Novel Artemisinin-Derived Dimers: Synthesis and Evaluation of Anti-cancer Activities

In continuation of our study on anticancer compounds, a series of novel artemisinin dimers have been synthesized and evaluated for their cytotoxic effects against three human cancer cell lines, including HepG2 (liver cancer), MCF-7(breast cancer) and HL-60 (leukemia cancer). The assay results showed that most of the compounds displayed inhibitory effects against all three human cancer cell lines tested, and seemed to be more cytotoxic toward the blood cancer cells (HL-60) than liver (HepG2), and breast (MCF-7) cancer cells. Among the synthesized artemisinin dimers, the compound 10d with a double bond bridge exhibited the most potent cytotoxicity with IC50 values of 5.08, 4.82 and 1.32 μg/mL against the HepG2, MCF-7, and HL-60 cell lines, respectively.