Investigation of derivatives of 2H-chromene oximes as anticancer agents.

Chromene derivatives are widely recognised for their broad range of biological activities, especially their strong potential in fighting cancer. In this work, we developed novel oxime-based chromene derivatives as potential anticancer agents. A total of 14 novel oxime derivatives were designed, synthesized, and screened for their antiproliferative effect against a panel of cell lines, which included A549 (lung carcinoma) and MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7 (breast cancer) cell lines, for their anti-cancer activity. Among the synthesised compounds, 6i and 6j were found to be most promising, with 6i showing an antiproliferative effect against A549 and MCF-7 cells while 6j was selective toward MCF-7 cells. None of the compounds was found to be toxic against non-cancer NIH-3T3 cells. Finally, we used an in-silico approach to predict the drug-likeness and pharmacokinetic properties, wherein all the compounds were found to follow drug-likeness parameters and showed optimum pharmacokinetic properties. This study could be a stepping stone for further optimisation of chromene-based oximes for their anticancer activity.