Dr Jovana Muškinja

Starting from the fact that chalcones are very suitable compounds for various transformations, we synthesized a variety of chalcones and their analogues containing vanillin in their structure. These compounds often represent the main part of the structure of many natural products. They are also very good substrates for obtaining new azaheterocyclic compounds. As such, we used them for the synthesis of a series of pyrazoline and pyrimidine derivatives in high yield. Some of these series showed very good antimicrobial activity, while others were useful antitumor agents with high cytotoxic activity against the tested cancerous cell lines. Most importantly, all of these new compounds did not show a toxic effect against a normal non-cancerous cell line (MRC-5).

In continuation of our research aimed at the synthesis of various biologically active compounds, we decided to include one of the more useful compounds in organometallic chemistry, ferrocene. A series of ferrocene chalcones and their analogues were obtained and these products were used for different types of reactions aimed at the synthesis of new azaheterocyclic compounds (pyrazoline, oxazole, pyrimidine and diazepam derivatives).

1. Janković, J. Muškinja, Z. Ratković, Z. Bugarčić, B. Ranković, M. Kosanić, S. Stefanović, Solvent-free synthesis of novel vanillidene derivatives of Meldrum′s acid: biological evaluation, DNA and BSA binding study. RSC Advances, 6 (2016) 39452-39459. https://doi.org/10.1039/C6RA07711K.
2. Burmudžija, Z. Ratković, J. Muškinja, N. Janković, B. Ranković, M. Kosanić, S. Đorђеvić, Ferrocenyl based pyrazoline derivatives with vanillic core: synthesis and investigation of its biological properties. RSC Advances, 6 (2016) 91420-91430. https://doi.org/10.1039/C6RA18977F.
3. Muškinja, N. Janković, Z. Ratković, G. Bogdanović, Z. Bugarčić, Vanillic aldehydes for the one-pot synthesis of novel 2-oxo-1,2,3,4-tetrahydropyrimidines Molecular Diversity, 20 (2016) 591-604. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11030-016-9658-y.
4. J. M. Muškinja, A. Z. Burmudžija, D. D. Baskić, S. L. Popović, D. V. Todоровић, M. М. Zarić, Z. R. Ratković, Synthesis and anticancer activity of chalcone analogues with sulfonyl groups Medicinal Chemistry Research, 28 (2019) 279-291. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00044-018-02283-4.