Prompted by the literature report on anticancer properties of mefenamic acid, a series of mefenamic acid based indole derivatives were designed via a rational approach. Synthesis of this class of compounds was carried out via a 3-step method starting from the mefenamic acid and using the Pd/C-Cu mediated coupling-cyclization strategy as a key step. A focused library of related molecules was synthesized and evaluated for their anti-proliferative properties against normal (HEK293T) and oral (CAL

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... 7) as well as breast (MCF-7) cancer cell lines when several compounds showed selective growth inhibition of oral cancer cells of which the compound 5g [i.e. N-(2-(((5-fl uoro-1-(methylsulfonyl)-1H-indol-2-yl)methoxy)methyl)phenyl)-2,3-dimethylaniline] was found to be promising. ª 2015 The Authors. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of King Saud University. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).