One-Step Synthesis of 3,4-Diphenyl-2-pyrrolinones by Solvent-Free and Bi2O3-Catalyzed Approaches and Cytotoxicity Screening Against Glioma Cells.pdf

Multifunctionalized 2-pyrrolinones were synthesized from the formal aza-[3 + 2] cycloaddition reactionof acyclic enaminones and diphenylcyclopropenone. For primary enaminones, solventless reaction undermicrowave heating was developed. On the other hand, catalysis by Bi2O3under conventional heating wasthe more suitable strategy when secondary enaminones were employed. These conditions allowed thesynthesis of a set of 2-pyrrolinones with two vicinal phenyl substituents, which were evaluated forcytotoxicity against U251 and C6 glioblastoma cells. In general, all tested 2-pyrrolinones with two vicinalphenyl rings were more active than those without this structural moiety, and 1-butyl-5-methyl-5-(2-oxopropyl)-3,4-diphenyl-1,5-dihydro-2H-pyrrol-2-one was the most cytotoxic and appears to be a newpossibility as an antitumor scaffold to this aggressive brain tumor