Synthesis,structure analysis,antitumor evaluation and 3D-QSAR studies of 3,6-disubstituted-dihydro-1,2,4,5-tetrazine derivatives

3,6-Diaryl-dihydro-1,2,4,5-tetrazine derivatives were synthesized and their structures were confirmed by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Monosubstituted dihydrotetrazines are the 1,4-dihydro structure, but disubstituted dihydrotetrazines are the 1,2-dihydro structure. The results of further research indicated there may be a rearrangement during the synthesis process of disubstituted dihydrotetrazines. Their antitumor activities were evaluated against A-549 and P388 cells in vitro. The results showed several compounds to be endowed with cytotoxicity in the low micromolar range. Two compounds were highly effective against A-549 cell and IC₅₀ values were 0.575 and 2.08 μM, respectively. Three-dimensional quantitative structure–activity relationship (3D-QSAR) studies of comparative molecular field analysis (CoMFA) and comparative molecular similarity indices analysis (CoMSIA) were carried out on 37 1,2,4,5-tetrazine derivatives with antitumor activity against A-549 cell. Models with good predictive abilities were generated with the cross validated q² values for CoMFA and CoMSIA being 0.744 and 0.757, respectively. Conventional r² values were 0.978 and 0.988, respectively, the predicted R² values were 0.916 and 0.898, respectively. The results provide the tool for guiding the design and synthesis of novel and more potent tetrazine derivatives.