Anticancer Activity of New Bis-(3-(Thiophen-2-yl)-1H-Pyrazol-4-yl)Chalcones: Synthesis, in-Silico, and in-Vitro Studies

Abstract

A series of bis-chalcones with alkyl linkers incorporating 3-(thiophen-2-yl)pyrazole 5–10 has been prepared by the condensation reaction of two moles of 3-(thiophen-2-yl)pyrazole-4-aldehyde 4 with one mole of bis- o- or p-(acetophenones) 3a-f. The synthesized compounds 5-10 have been fully characterized and tested as novel anti-cancer agents. The in vitro anticancer activities of the compounds 5-10 were evaluated against a panel of human cancer cell lines (A431, A549, and PC3), and a normal human skin fibroblast BJ1. Compound 10 was the most promising in the prepared series with IC₅₀ (48.7 and 74.2 µg/mL) against epidermoid cancer cell line A431 and the lung adenocarcinoma cell line A549, respectively, compared to the reference drug doxorubicin (IC₅₀, 28.3 and 27.9 µg/mL, respectively). The target compound 10 was investigated theoretically using molecular docking study to different domain sets (1dls, 2c6o, 2w3t, 4kmn, and 4wt2) and they illustrated different modes of action with different binding energies.

Keywords:

• Bis-chalcones
• aliphatic linker
• 3-(thiophen-2-yl)pyrazole
• molecular docking
• anti-cancer activity
• DNA damage
• DNA fragmentation
• gene expression

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.