{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,27]],"date-time":"2026-08-27T22:04:15Z","timestamp":1787868255072,"version":"build-2784847793"},"reference-count":51,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,12,28]],"date-time":"2022-12-28T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1672185600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Ministero dell\u2019Istruzione, dell\u2019Universit\u00e0 e della Ricerca","award":["PRIN2020 2020833Y75"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["PRIN2020 2020833Y75"]}]},{"name":"Ministero dell\u2019Istruzione, dell\u2019Universit\u00e0 e della Ricerca","award":["18668"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["18668"]}]},{"name":"Ministero dell\u2019Istruzione, dell\u2019Universit\u00e0 e della Ricerca","award":["RFO 2021"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["RFO 2021"]}]},{"name":"the Fondazione CarisBo","award":["PRIN2020 2020833Y75"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["PRIN2020 2020833Y75"]}]},{"name":"the Fondazione CarisBo","award":["18668"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["18668"]}]},{"name":"the Fondazione CarisBo","award":["RFO 2021"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["RFO 2021"]}]},{"name":"Alma Mater Studiorum\u2014Universit\u00e0 di Bologna","award":["PRIN2020 2020833Y75"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["PRIN2020 2020833Y75"]}]},{"name":"Alma Mater Studiorum\u2014Universit\u00e0 di Bologna","award":["18668"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["18668"]}]},{"name":"Alma Mater Studiorum\u2014Universit\u00e0 di Bologna","award":["RFO 2021"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["RFO 2021"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Molecules"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Indoles constitute a large family of heterocyclic compounds widely occurring in nature which are present in a number of bioactive natural and synthetic compounds, including anticancer agents or atypical opioid agonists. As a result, exponential increases in the development of novel methods for the synthesis of indole-containing compounds have been reported in the literature. A series of indole-aryl amide derivatives 1\u20137 containing tryptamine or an indolylacetic acid nucleus were designed, synthesized, and evaluated as opioid ligands. These new indole derivatives showed negligible to very low affinity for \u03bc- and \u03b4-opioid receptor (OR). On the other hand, compounds 2, 5 and 7 showed Ki values in the low \u03bcM range for \u03ba-OR. Since indoles are well known for their anticancer potential, their effect against a panel of tumor cell lines was tested. The target compounds were evaluated for their in vitro cytotoxicity in HT29, HeLa, IGROV-1, MCF7, PC-3, and Jurkat J6 cells. Some of the synthesized compounds showed good activity against the selected tumor cell lines, with the exception of IGROV1. In particular, compound 5 showed a noteworthy selectivity towards HT29 cells, a malignant colonic cell line, without affecting healthy human intestinal cells. Further studies revealed that 5 caused the cell cycle arrest in the G1 phase and promoted apoptosis in HT29 cells.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/molecules28010265","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,12,29]],"date-time":"2022-12-29T02:54:42Z","timestamp":1672282482000},"page":"265","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":8,"title":["Synthesis and Antiproliferative Activity against Cancer Cells of Indole-Aryl-Amide Derivatives"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"28","author":[{"given":"Junwei","family":"Zhao","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Chemistry \u201cG. Ciamician\u201d, University of Bologna, Via Selmi 2, 40126 Bologna, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8743-7859","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jacopo","family":"Carbone","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Chemistry \u201cG. 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Ciamician\u201d, University of Bologna, Via Selmi 2, 40126 Bologna, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Natalia","family":"Calonghi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pharmacy and Biotechnology (FaBiT), University of Bologna, Via Irnerio 48, 40126 Bologna, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,12,28]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"6620","DOI":"10.3390\/molecules18066620","article-title":"Biomedical Importance of Indoles","volume":"18","author":"Kaushik","year":"2013","journal-title":"Molecules"},{"key":"ref_2","first-page":"121","article-title":"A brief review of the biological potential of indole derivatives","volume":"6","author":"Kumar","year":"2020","journal-title":"FJPS"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"33540","DOI":"10.1039\/D1RA05972F","article-title":"Synthesis of indole derivatives as prevalent moieties present in selected alkaloids","volume":"11","author":"Heravi","year":"2021","journal-title":"RSC Adv."},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Verardi, L., Fiori, J., Andrisano, V., Locatelli, A., Morigi, R., Naldi, M., Bertucci, C., Strocchi, E., Boga, C., and Micheletti, G. 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