Abstract
The advent of Camptothecin added a new dimension in the field anticancer drug development containing quinoline motif. Quinoline scaffold plays an important role in anticancer drug development as their derivatives have shown excellent results through different mechanism of action such as growth inhibitors by cell cycle arrest, apoptosis, inhibition of angiogenesis, disruption of cell migration, and modulation of nuclear receptor responsiveness. The anti-cancer potential of several of these derivatives have been demonstrated on various cancer cell lines. In this review we have compiled and discussed specifically the anticancer potential of quinoline derivatives, which could provide a low-height flying bird's eye view of the quinoline derived compounds to a medicinal chemist for a comprehensive and target oriented information for development of clinically viable anticancer drugs.
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•Quinoline scaffold as an attractive target for anticancer drug development.•An overview about the progress of quinoline derivatives as anticancer agent from Camptothecin till date.•The mode of action of various quinoline derivatives is discussed.•This review will help to get ideas on structural requirement of quinoline scaffold as anticancer agent.