Evaluation of Cytotoxic Profile of Some Chalcone Derivatives with Antimalarial Properties

Malaria continues to kill thousands of people worldwide. People South of the Sahara are paying the heaviest price for this epidemic. In addition, the resistance of Plasmodium falciparum which spreads to artemisinin derivatives becomes worrying. To respond to this emergency, the search for new molecules effective against the parasite is essential. Otherwise, chalcones have shown their potential as an effective pharmaceutical agent in numerous studies. However, despite their mainly antiparasitic efficacy, several compounds have been shown to be cytotoxic. This study aimed to assess the cytotoxic profile of chalcone derivatives. Cytotoxicity tests were carried out according to the method described by Taylor and collaborators on Vero cells. The 96-well plates were used in carrying out this study, 100 µl of the compounds were added with concentrations ranging from 7.5 to 1000 µg/ml in DMEM. The results obtained report three compounds derivatives (Chal_B14, Chal_B17 & Chal_SCA03) no-cytotoxic with LDH product values between 129 - 132.5 U/L and ATP ranging from 8.55 to 13.6 RLU. The IC50s for no-cytotoxic compounds ranged from 102 to 236 µM. On the other hand, the cytotoxic compounds had IC50s of less than 30 µM.

The results of this study show that the derivatives Chal_B14, Chal_B17 & Chal_SCA03 are candidate compounds with a view to finding new molecules.