Following our earlier finding that tetracyclic anthraquinone analogs with a fused pyridone ring exhibit cytotoxic activity toward multidrug resistant tumor cells, a series of new potential antitumor agents, 7-oxo-7H-naphtho [1, 2, 3-de] quinoline derivatives (3, 6–8, 10–12, 14, 15, and 18), bearing one or two basic side chains and various substituents at the pyridone ring, have been synthesized. The compounds have been obtained from 1-amino-4- ...