Darpones and water-soluble aminobutoxylated darpone derivatives are distinguished by matrix COMPARE analysis

Darpones are a class of compounds with antiproliferative activity for cancer cells in vitro and in mouse models. In order to improve the solubility of the compounds, darpones with aminobutoxy side chains were synthesized. The new derivatives showed retained antiproliferative activity for cultured cancer cell lines. However, a change of the selectivity pattern in the in vitro cell line screening project of the American National Cancer Institute indicates that the solubilized derivatives might act through a different biological mechanism. A matrix COMPARE analysis of the cancer cell line screening data clearly distinguished darpones with and without solubilizing aminobutoxy side chains.