Synthesis and In vitro‐In silico Evaluation of Thiazolo‐triazole Hybrids as Anticancer Candidates

Abstract

AbstractTo meet the growing need for stable and clinically effective chemotherapeutic agents, herein, we have synthesized a series of acyl‐functionalized thiazolo[3,2‐b]‐[1,2,4]triazole derivatives in highly efficient and regioselective manner. The structure of newly synthesized regioisomeric products was unambiguously characterized by multinuclear 2D‐NMR [(1H−13C) HMBC, (1H−13C) HMQC] spectroscopic data. To assess the anticancer and pharmacokinetic profile of the synthesized compounds, we performed in silico, and ex vivo binding studies of compounds with calf‐thymus deoxyribonucleic acid (ct‐DNA) and bovine serum albumin (BSA), respectively, and also tested their efficacy against five human cancer cell lines. viz., MCF‐7 (breast cancer), BT‐474 (breast cancer), A549 (lung cancer), MOLT4 (acute lymphoblastic leukemia), and BxPC3 (pancreatic cancer). Compounds (2‐(4‐chlorophenyl)‐6‐methylthiazolo[3,2‐b][1,2,4]triazol‐5‐yl)(4‐fluorophenyl)methanone 6 l, (4‐chlorophenyl)(2‐(4‐chlorophenyl)‐6‐methylthiazolo[3,2‐b][1,2,4]triazol‐5‐yl)methanone 6 m and (2‐(4‐chlorophenyl)‐6‐methylthiazolo[3,2‐b][1,2,4]triazol‐5‐yl)(4‐methoxyphenyl) methanone 6 q exhibited excellent anticancer potential among the screened derivatives. Furthermore, ex‐vivo mechanistic investigations showed the static mode of quenching and moderate bindings between the ligand and biomolecules; DNA (Kq=2.01‐2.24*1012 M−1 s−1) and BSA (Kq=2.25‐.2.72*1012 M−1 s−1). Moreover, fluorescence displacement assay demonstrated a groove binding mode of interaction with ct‐DNA, which was supported by UV‐Visible absorption spectrum, circular dichroism, and viscosity analysis.