Synthesis and antitumor evaluation of 2,3-diarylbenzofuran derivatives on HeLa cells.

2,2-Dihydroxyarylethanones, readily prepared from the commercially available aromatic ethyl ketones, were reacted with resorcinol, 3-methoxyphenol or 2-methoxyphenol in multi steps one-pot manner promoted by trifluoroacetic acid to furnish the 2,3-diarylbenzofuran derivatives in 22-95% yield. Sixteen targeted compounds were synthesized and characterized by 1H NMR, 13C NMR and HRMS. MTT assay indicated that most compounds possessed effectively inhibitory activities against the proliferation of HeLa cell. Among them, 4f had the highest inhibitory activities, with the IC50 being 13.40±2.04µmol/L. Cell cycle analysis, Annexin V-FITC/propidium iodide dual staining assay and western blotting analysis revealed that 4f inhibited the proliferation of Hela cell through apoptosis induction in a dose-dependent manner via obviously up-regulated the levels of Bak and Bim, while striking down-regulated the level of Bcl-2 and Bcl-xL protein.