Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of Phthalideisoquinoline Derivatives.

A photo and Cu-mediated radical-radical approach enabling the one-step synthesis of the phthalideisoquinoline skeleton has been reported. Under mild reaction conditions, a series of -aryl phthalideisoquinolines containing various substituents were synthesized in moderate to good yields. Bioactivity data demonstrated that a new compound can efficiently inhibit the growth of multiple tumor cell lines with enhancements of more than 10-fold by significantly increasing G/M arrest compared with noscapine.