New chalcone-tethered 1,3,5-triazines potentiate the anticancer effect of cisplatin against human lung adenocarcinoma A549 cells by enhancing DNA damage and cell apoptosis.

In the pursuit of new compounds for co-treatment to enhance the anticancer efficacy of cisplatin against lung adenocarcinoma, a series of chalcone-tethered 1,3,5-triazines was designed and synthesized. MTT assay was used to evaluate the anticancer activity of the combinations in which two hybrids 10 and 12 were found to significantly inhibit A549 cancer cells viability and their IC50 values were 24.5 and 17 µM, respectively in reference to cisplatin (IC50 = 21.5 µM). The combined effect of cisplatin with each of 10 and 12 was analyzed according to Chou-Talalay method against both A549 and normal human fibroblast cells. Mechanistic studies employing MALDI-TOF MS and fluorescence spectroscopy using Evagreen probe inferred that 10 and 12 induced DNA double strand breaks in contrast to cisplatin which induces DNA interstrand cross-links. Also, DNA damage kinetics study demonstrated the difference in the rate of DNA damage induced by both 10 and 12 alone and in combination with cisplatin. Further Annexin V-FITC/propidium iodide dual staining assay provided evidence that 10 and 12 induced apoptosis via different pattern to cisplatin and their combination with cisplatin promoted more cells to enter late apoptosis and necrosis. Molecular docking of 10 and 12 in the active pocket of DNA dodecamer displayed their binding modes with higher number of stable hydrogen bond donor as well as π-H interactions in reference to the original ligand.