Design, synthesis, in silico ADMET, docking, and antiproliferative evaluations of [1,2,4]triazolo[4,3-c]quinazolines as classical DNA intercalators.

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Eleven novel [1,2,4]triazolo[4,3-c]quinazolines were designed, synthesized, and evaluated against HepG2 and HCT-116 cells. The molecular design was performed to investigate the binding mode of the proposed compounds with the DNA active site. The data obtained from biological testing highly correlated with that obtained from molecular modeling. HCT-116 was found to be the most sensitive cell line to the influence of the new derivatives. In particular, compounds 6f and 6e were found to be the most potent derivatives over all the tested compounds against the two HepG2 and HCT116 cancer cell lines, with IC50 = 23.44 ± 2.9, 12.63 ± 1.2, and 25.80 ± 2.1, and 14.32 ± 1.5 µM, respectively. Although compounds 6f and 6e displayed less activity than doxorubicin (IC50 = 7.94 ± 0.6 and 8.07 ± 0.8 µM, respectively), both could be useful as a template for future design, optimization, and investigation to produce more potent anticancer analogs. The most active derivatives 6a , 6c , 6e , and 6f were evaluated for their DNA-binding activities. Compound 6f displayed the highest binding affinity. This compound potently intercalates DNA at a decreased IC50 value (54.08 µM). Compounds 6a , 6c , and 6e exhibited good DNA-binding affinities, with IC50 values of 79.35, 84.08, and 59.35 µM, respectively. Furthermore, ADMET (absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion, and toxicity) profiles were calculated for the four most active compounds in comparison to doxorubicin as a reference drug. Our derivatives 6a , 6c , 6e , and 6f displayed very good in-silico-predicted ADMET profiles. Doxorubicin violates three of Lipinski's rules, our derivatives 6a , 6c , 6e , and 6f do not violate any rule.