Synthesis, preferentially hypoxic apoptosis and anti-angiogenic activity of 1,2,4-benzotrazin-3-amine 1,4-dioxide bearing alkyl linkers with 1,2,4-benzotrazin-3-amine 1-oxide derivatives.

3-(Aminoalkylamino)-1,2,4-benzotriazine-1,4-dioxide-extended derivatives were synthesized by the structural modification of 3-amino-1,2,4-benzotriazine-1,4-dioxide (tirapazamine, TPZ) that incorporated homologue-alkyl linkers, without or with an extended 3- amino-1,2,4-benzotriazine-1-oxide moiety at the 3-position of the TPZ. According to sequential evaluation of preferentially normoxic and hypoxic cytotoxicities against MCF-7, NCI-H460 and HCT-116, most of the synthesized compounds exhibited hypoxic cytotoxicity greater than or comparable to that of TPZ. Among them, compounds 9a and 9b more powerfully inhibited the proliferation of MCF-7, NCI-H460 and HCT-116 in hypoxia than did TPZ. The representative of 3-(aminoalkylamino)-1,2,4-benzotriazine-1,4-dioxide-extended derivatives, 9a exhibited greater hypoxic cytotoxicity than TPZ, mediated by cell cycle arrest. The induction of DNA damage, the activation of caspase 3/7 and cleaved poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase-related apoptosis, which were detected in HCT-116 cells in both normoxia and hypoxia. In vitro anti-angiogenic assay of co-cultured HUVECs and fibroblasts that were exposed to the selected 7b, 8g, 9a and 9b exhibited 80-90% inhibition of tube formation at 20 µM, whereas TPZ exhibited approximately 50% inhibition of tube formation at 20 µM. At 2 µM, 9a and 9b significantly reduced the areas, lengths, paths and joints of tube formation by 70-80% and 45-50%, respectively. These results reveal that most of synthesized TPZ derivatives in this study exhibited more potent anti-angiogenesis than TPZ.