N-Terpenyl Benzisoselenazolones—Evaluation of the Particular Structure-Bioactivity Relationship ^†

Different activity of compounds with the same molecular formula but possessing alternative bonding arrangement or orientation of atoms in space is a very important issue when constructing molecules that can selectively interact with certain domains of the biological target. Herein, we present the synthesis of the new chiral benzisoselenazol-3(2H)-ones substituted on the nitrogen atom with three monoterpene moieties: p-menthane, pinane and carane. All derivatives were obtained by the reaction of an appropriate amine with 2-(chloroseleno)benzoyl chloride. The applied terpenyl amines were first synthetized by a multistep procedure starting from the corresponding alcohol (p-menthane system) or alkene (pinene and carene systems). Finally, all compounds were tested as antioxidants and antiproliferative agents on breast cancer MCF-7 and human promyelocytic leukemia cell line HL-60. The correlation between the structure of the obtained organoselenium compounds, representing examples of various isomers including enantiomers, diastereoisomers and regioisomers, and their bio-activity was thoroughly evaluated.