Abstract
A novel series of 4-(1-methyl-1H-indol-3-yl)-6-(methylthio) pyrimidine-5-carbonitriles (4a–i) was synthesized and evaluated for anticancer potential against cell lines for breast cancer. Compounds 4b, 4e, and 4h exhibited prominent cytotoxicity against human breast carcinoma MCF-7 cell line with GI50 of 2.0, 0.5, and 0.5 µM, respectively. Molecular docking study against EGFR tyrosine kinase could provide valuable insights into the plausible mechanism of action. The compounds could bind with significantly high binding affinity and their binding affinity scores could correlate well with the observed anticancer activity. Furthermore, compounds 4a, 4c, 4e, 4g, and 4i exhibited significant inflammatory activities as well which could expand the therapeutic domain of this novel series.
Graphical Abstract
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Acknowledgments
The authors express deep thanks to Tata Memorial Centre, Advanced Centre for Treatment Research and Education in Cancer (ACTREC), Kharghar, Navi Mumbai-410210 for conducting the in vitro anticancer activities and Dr. Sandip Patil, Birnale College of Pharmacy, Sangli, India for antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity determinations. The authors are thankfully acknowledged Schrödinger Inc. for providing the Glide program to perform the molecular docking study. Harshal Shivaji Patil thankful to Dr. H. V. Thulasiram, Principle Scientist, CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory, Pune for his immense support and continuous guidance.
Disclosure statement
The authors declare no competing interests.
Ethical approval
All authors have agreed on the final version of this paper.
Correction Statement
This article was originally published with errors, which have now been corrected in the online version. Please see Correction (http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00397911.2022.2079335).