Steroid based
cancer chemotherapeutic agents of the type 2'-amino-3'-cyanocholest-6-eno[5,7-de]4H-
pyrans (1c-3c) have been synthesized and characterized by the various spectroscopic and analytical techniques. The
DNA binding studies of compounds (1c-3c) with CT
DNA were carried out by UV-vis and fluorescence spectroscopy and gel electrophoresis. The compounds (1c-3c) bind to
DNA preferentially through electrostatic and hydrophobic interactions with Kb values found to be 5.4 × 10(3), 2.3 × 10(3)M(-1) and 1.97 × 10(3)M(-1), respectively indicating the higher binding affinity of compound (1c) towards
DNA. The molecular docking study suggested that the electrostatic interaction of compounds (1c-3c) in between the
nucleotide base pairs is due to the presence of
pyran moiety in
steroid molecule. All the compounds (1c-3c) cleave supercoiled pBR322
DNA via hydrolytic pathway, as validated by
T4 DNA ligase assay. The compounds (1c-3c) were screened for in vitro cytotoxicity against the
cancer and non-
cancer cells SW480, A549, HepG2, HeLa, MCF-7, HL-60, DU-145, NL-20, HPC and HPLF by MTT assay. The compounds (1c-3c) were tested for genotoxicity (comet assay) involving apoptotic degradation of
DNA and was analyzed by
agarose gel electrophoresis and visualized by
ethidium bromide staining. The results revealed that compound (1c) has better prospectus to act as
cancer chemotherapeutic candidate which warrants further in vivo anticancer investigations.