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This work reported is divided into two parts: the first part deals with quinoxaline derivatives and includes the preparation and characterisation of novel linear tricyclic quinones 1,4-diazanthracen-9,10-diones, (54) and (55). The reaction of diazanaphthoquinones and 1-acetyl-1,3-butadiene are used to produce these quinones through the Diels-Alder reaction. In addition hexaazapentacyclic 5,6,7,12,13, 14-hexaazapentacene was prepared by the reaction ofbis(2-chloroquinoxalin-3-yl)sulfide with thioxamide and the reaction of the sulfide with amines was investigated. Two different approaches to 6,13-dibutyl-5,6,7,12,13,14-hexaazapentacene are given. Derivatives of the pentacyclic, 6-thia- 5,7,12,13,14-pentaazapentacene and the unsubstituted 6,13 -dihydro compound are described. The novel N-(2,5-dimethoxy-6-nitrophenyl)guanidine is used to obtain 3-amino-5,6-dimethoxy-1 ,2,4-benzotriazine-1-oxide and 4,7 -dimethoxy-1 ,2,3 -benzotriazole is shown to be second product. Second part of the work is concerned with the development of a preparative route to 2,6-diphenylpyridines substituted with different groups on the phenyl nuclei. Several approaches were attempted. Finally, success was achieved and a series of compounds having basic chains of different length on the phenyl groups was prepared. One chain in each case had a terminal primary amine. The binding constants of the primary amines and their N-acetyl derivatives with DNA were determined using fluorescence spectroscopy.

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No / Several Ru-arene and Ir–Cp* complexes have been prepared incorporating (N,N), (N,O) and (O,O) coordinating bidentate ligands and have been found to be active against both HT-29 and MCF-7 cell lines. By incorporating a biologically active ligand into a metal complex the anti-cancer activity is increased.

The first section of this work describes the synthesis of a library of novel rhein analogues that are potential anticancer agents. The design of these compounds takes advantage of the ability for rhein to intercalate into DNA and as the incorporation of an alkylating agent, which serves to covalently modify DNA. In three cell lines, these compounds showed potent cytotoxicity with IC50 in the low to mid-μM range. The second project was focused on the development of an efficient synthesis of 6H-Isoindolo[2,1-α]indol-6-one (24), a core structure for a number of biologically active compounds. The approach is metal-free and uses a Beckmann rearrangement followed by an intramolecular cyclization.

Combinatorial protein libraries based on a protein template offer a vast potential for deriving protein variants harboring new receptor specificity while retaining other tem-plate functions to serve as library search-engines, cell-routing sequences and therapeutic domains. This concept was tested with the design and synthesis of protein libraries where short random peptide motifs were embedded directly within the catalytic A subunit of the bacterial ribosome-inactivating protein (RIP) known as Shiga-like toxin 1 (SLT-1). More precisely, a seven amino acid peptide epitope (PDTRPAP) was inserted between residues 245-246 of its A subunit (SLT-1APDTRPAP) and shown to preserve catalytic function while exposing the epitope. SLT-1 A chain libraries harboring tripep-tide and heptapeptide random elements were subsequently constructed, screened and shown to express more than 90% of expected cytotoxic A chain variants. Finally, more than 9,000 purified SLT-1 A chain variants were screened using their ribosome-inactivating function in a cell-based assay to identify mutants that are able to kill human melanoma 518-A2 cells. This search led to the striking discovery of a single chain RIP that displays selectivity for a panel of human melanoma cell lines as well as minimal immunogenicity when injected repeatedly into mice. This directed evolution of a RIP template provides a broad platform for identifying cell type specific cytotoxic agents.