Synthesis and antioxidant activity of new tetrahydro-naphthalene-indole derivatives as retinoid and melatonin analogs

Abstract

A number of retinoid-related compounds represent classes of antioxidative and proapoptotic agents with promising potential in the treatment of neoplastic diseases. Indeed, the synthetic retinoid amide fenretinide [N-(4-hydroxyphenyl) retinamide] induces apoptosis of cancer cells and acts as a chemotherapeutic drug in cancer therapy. In the present work, and as a continuation of our studies on retinoid-type compounds, the synthesis of melatonin retinamide derivatives was studied as a novel series of melatonin retinoids, using the condensation reaction sequence involving tetrahydrotetramethylnaphthalene carboxylic acid and appropriate melatonin-type moieties. Despite of the weak DPPH inhibition activity pattern of the synthesized compounds, some of them showed a strong inhibition on lipid peroxidation (IVa-b, Va, and VIIa-c, 88, 96, 90, 94, 93, and 86%, respectively at 10-4 M concentration) when melatonin (85% at 10-4 M concentration) was used as a reference compound.