Discovery and Biological Evaluation of Novel Fluorinated Derivatives of Benzophenone Analogues as Potent Anti‐Cancer Agent: Synthesis, In Vitro Assay and Molecular Dynamics

Abstract A range of new fluorinated derivatives of benzophenone analogs were developed and assessed on the human MDA‐MB‐231 triple‐negative breast cancer cell line and human cervical carcinoma cell line KB‐3‐1 for cytotoxic and anti‐proliferative effects. Synthesized derivatives were characterized by 1 H NMR, 13 C NMR, FTIR, HRMS, and XRD spectroscopy. Compounds 6 a and 7 a had ~2.1 and ~13‐fold more cytotoxic activity against the KB‐3‐1 cell line than the positive control, gemcitabine. Malononitrile‐modified fluorinated benzophenone derivatives 6 b and 7 b exhibited outstanding cytotoxicity against the KB‐3‐1 cell line, outperforming the standard reference by ~3.6 and ~13.5 times, respectively. Similarly, compounds 6 a , and 7 a exhibited ~1.2 and ~2.5 fold accurate cytotoxic activity against the MDA‐MB‐231 breast cancer cell line compared to a standard reference. Whereas, compounds 6 b and 7 b exhibited ~ 2.2 and ~2.8 fold accurate cytotoxic activity compared to a reference standard. The experimental results demonstrated that out of eight novel compounds, compound 7 b had greater cytotoxic activity than the standard reference against the cervical cancer cell line KB‐3‐1 and the breast cancer MDA‐MB‐231. Molecular docking investigation was used to examine the expected binding affinity and potential binding poses of the produced compounds.