Design, synthesis, in silico and in vitro evaluation of thiophene derivatives: A potent tyrosine phosphatase 1B inhibitor and anticancer activity

Abstract

A series of novel methyl 4-(4-amidoaryl)-3-methoxythiophene-2-carboxylate derivatives were designed against the active site of protein tyrosine phosphatise 1B (PTP1B) enzyme using MOE.2008.10. These molecules are also subjected for in silico toxicity prediction studies and considering their corresponding drug scores, it implied that, the molecules are promising as anticancer agents. The designed compounds were synthesized by using suitable methods and characterized. They were subjected to inhibitory activity against PTP1B and in vitro anticancer activity by MTT assay. Most of the tested compounds showed potent inhibitory activity against PTP1B, among the compounds tested, compound 5b exhibited the highest activity (IC50=5.25µM) and remarkable cytotoxic activity at 0.09µM of IC50 against the MCF-7 cell line. In addition to this, compound 5c also showed potential anticancer activity at 2.22µM of IC50 against MCF-7 and 0.72µM against HepG2 cell lines as well as PTP1B inhibitory activity at IC50 of 6.37µM.