In the present investigation, novel azo compounds containing pyrimidinone moiety incorporated with different heterocycles were synthesized and characterized using spectroscopic techniques including FT-IR, 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR, and elemental analysis. These azo derivatives were assessed in- silico to determine how well they could inhibit the antiapoptotic B-cell lymphoma-2 (Bcl-2) protein while providing information about their pharmacokinetic characteristics. Our results elucidated that the majority of these new compounds demonstrated moderate to strong binding energies against Bcl-2 target protein comparable to that of venetoclax FDA-approved Bcl-2 inhibitor. Compound 4 showed the top-ranked binding energy followed by compound 5 and compound 3 with values equal to -11.65, -9.53, and -7.82 kcal/mol respectively, while compounds 6 and 7 showed moderate binding energies compared with venetoclax drug that give binding energy equal to -6.95 kcal/mol Furthermore, the in-vitro investigations observed that compounds 4, 5 and 3 demonstrated superior anticancer efficacy against HepG2 and MCF-7 compared to venetoclax drug that gives IC50 equal to 5.10±0.54 and 4.17±0.8 μM respectively. Moreover, all newly synthesized compounds had no cytotoxic impact on WI-38 normal cells contrary to venetoclax drug (26.72±0.94 μM) which was confirmed also through ADMES drug-likeness scores study. Additionally, compounds 4, 5, and 3 revealed an efficient antioxidant scavenging capacity towards DPPH free radicals while compounds 6 and 7 showed a weak scavenging effect compared with standard L. ascorbic acid. Ultimately, the newly synthesized pyrimidinone compounds 4, 5, and 3 that were examined showed encouraging apoptotic and antiproliferative properties. Further, in upcoming clinical studies, the newly synthesized pyrimidinone compounds may prove to be effective anticancer medicines.
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