Design, synthesis and antitumor activities of novel 7-arylseleno-7-deoxydaunomycinone derivatives.

7-Arylseleno-7-deoxydaunomycinone derivatives 3a-e and 7-thiophenyl-7-deoxydaunomycinones (7 and 8) were synthesized and the antitumor activities of them were evaluated against human stomach cancer SGC-7901 and human leukaemia HL60. The cytotoxic assay show that seleno daunomycinone derivatives are much better inhibitory activity than thiodaunomycinone and the structure-activity relationship was discussed. 7-Deoxydaunomycinone 4 was obtained when selenophenols were used in excess and the possible mechanism was proposed.