A biochemistry‐oriented drug design: synthesis, anticancer activity, enzymes inhibition, molecular docking studies of novel 1,2,4-triazole derivatives

Abstract

In this study, we researched the reactions of 5-(5-bromofuran-2-yl)-4-methyl-1,2,4-triazole-3-thiol and 5-thiophene-(3-ylmethyl)-4R-1,2,4-triazole-3-thiols with some halogen-containing compounds, a number of new compounds were synthesized (1.1–1.5 and 2.1–2.8). These compounds showed excellent to good inhibitory activities on acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) enzymes. For obtaining the effects of these compounds on AChE and BChE enzymes were determined spectrophotometrically according to Ellman. IC₅₀ values of these enzymes were ranging between 1.63 and 17.68 nM for AChE and 8.71 and 84.02 nM for BChE. After, prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related mortality for men over the age of 65 in developed countries. Current treatment options remain limited in the treatment of advanced-stage prostate cancer leading to biochemical recurrence in almost 40% of the patients. Therefore, there is an urgent need for development of novel therapeutic tools for treatment of prostate cancer patients. In this study, we aimed at analyzing the potential of all compounds against prostate cancer cells. We found that, of the tested compounds, 2.1, 2.2 and 2.3 showed significant cytotoxic activities against PC3 prostate cancer cells, although their effect on the viability of normal prostate cells was limited. These findings suggest their selective targeting potential for prostate cancer cells and offer them as candidate therapeutic agents against prostate cancer. The inhibitory activities of some chemical compounds, such as (1.1–1.5 and 2.1–2.8) were assessed by performing the molecular docking study in the presence of AChE, BChE and prostate cancer protein. MM/GBSA methods are calculated binding free energy. Finally, ADME/T analysis was performed to examine the drug properties of the 13 studied molecules.

Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma

Keywords:

• 1,2,4-triazole-3-thiols
• cholinesterase enzymes
• MM-GBSA
• molecular docking
• ADME/T
• prostate cancer

Acknowledgments

The numerical calculations reported in this article were fully/partially performed at TUBITAK ULAKBIM, High Performance and Grid Computing Center (TRUBA resources).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Scientific Research Project Fund of Sivas Cumhuriyet Üniversitesi (CUBAP) under the project number RGD-020.