Thiazolidinedione (TZD) has been an interesting scaffold due to its proven antidiabetic activity and encouraging findings in anticancer drug discovery. We synthesised benzylidene thiazolidinedione derivatives which exhibited excellent antiproliferative effects in chronic myeloid leukemic cells K562 and the most active compounds 3t and 3x had GI₅₀ value of 0.9 and 0.23 µM respectively. Both the compound was found to arrest the growth of K562 cells in G0/G1 phase in a time and dose dependent manner. Further, western blot analysis revealed that 3t and 3x could also inhibit the expression of cell proliferation markers, PCNA and Cyclin D1 and compound 3x up-regulated apoptosis markers, cleaved PARP1 and activated caspase 3, which could be a possible mechanism for the excellent antiproliferative effects exhibited by these compounds. In vitro combination studies of 3t and 3x with Imatinib found to potentiate the antitumor effects of Imatinib. Further in vivo efficacy in K562 xenografts, of 3t and 3x alone and in combination with Imatinib was found to be promising and far better than control group and combination treatment was found to be more effective as compared to only Imatinib treated or test compound treated animals. Thus, our findings suggest that these compounds are promising antitumor agents and could help to enhance the anticancer effects of Imatinib and other tyrosine kinase inhibitors, when used in combination.

噻唑烷二酮（TZD）由于其已被证实的抗糖尿病活性和令人鼓舞的抗癌药物发现而成为令人关注的支架。我们合成了亚苄基噻唑烷二酮衍生物，该衍生物在慢性髓样白血病细胞K562中表现出优异的抗增殖作用，活性最高的化合物3t和3x的GI ₅₀值分别为0.9和0.23 µM。发现这两种化合物都以时间和剂量依赖性的方式阻止了K562细胞在G0 / G1期的生长。此外，western blot分析显示3t和3x还可抑制细胞增殖标志物，PCNA和Cyclin D1的表达，以及化合物3x上调凋亡标志物，裂解PARP1和激活的胱天蛋白酶3，这可能是优异的抗增殖作用的可能机制。这些化合物表现出的效果。3t和3x与伊马替尼的体外联合研究发现可增强伊马替尼的抗肿瘤作用。进一步体内与单独使用伊马替尼或经测试化合物处理的动物相比，单独使用3t和3x并与伊马替尼联合使用的K562异种移植物的疗效被证明是有前途的，远胜于对照组，并且发现联合治疗更有效。因此，我们的发现表明，这些化合物联合使用时，有望成为抗肿瘤药物，并可能有助于增强伊马替尼和其他酪氨酸激酶抑制剂的抗癌作用。