Green synthesis of biologically important 2-aminothiophenes by the mediation of ZnO@SiO2–NH2 nanoparticle as an important anti-liver cancer alternative for valproate

Abstract

Liver cancer is one of the most important cancers that easily affects many organs in the body. Valproate is a well-known branched fatty acid and is commonly used as an antiepileptic in liver cancer therapy. Similar to many drugs, this chemical drug can induce fulminant liver failure in patients with liver cancer. So, finding new therapeutic agents with fewer side effects is of great attention. This study explains synthesis and characterization of a new effective nanocatalyst ZnO@SiO2–NH2, which can be a suitable candidate for valproate. The prepared nanocatalyst was characterized by FT-IR, TEM, XRD and FE-SEM and formation of the desired nanoparticles with a medium grain size of 70–90 nm is justified. Then, the synthesized nanocatalyst is checked in the multi-component synthesis of some important model drugs involving substituted 2-aminothiophenes, as effective compounds against human liver cancer. The present methodology showed good generality and wide scope, nearly short span of time, good yield, easy workup and environmental friendly conditions for the preparation of the target compounds. At the final part of this study, the in vitro cytotoxicity potential of the prepared nanoparticle is investigated against a well-known human cancer cell line HepG2 via the MTT assay. The experiments reveal that ZnO@SiO2–NH2 nanoparticles have significant cytotoxicity towards the selected cell line. As a result, although ZnO@SiO2–NH2 can be used to treat liver cancer cells, however, this nanoparticle can be utilized to synthesize 2-aminothiophenes, as effective anti-liver cancer drugs like valproate.