Synthesis, Structure, Chemical Stability, and In Vitro Cytotoxic Properties of Novel Quinoline-3-Carbaldehyde Hydrazones Bearing a 1,2,4-Triazole or Benzotriazole Moiety

Design, Synthesis, and In Vitro and In Vivo Bioactivity Studies of Hydrazide-Hydrazones of 2,4-Dihydroxybenzoic Acid

In this research, twenty-four hydrazide-hydrazones of 2,4-dihydroxybenzoic acid were designed, synthesized, and subjected to in vitro and in vivo bioactivity studies. The chemical structure of the obtained compounds was confirmed by spectral methods. Antimicrobial activity screening was performed against a panel of microorganisms for all synthesized hydrazide-hydrazones. The performed assays revealed the interesting antibacterial activity of a few substances against Gram-positive bacterial strains including MRSA-Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 43300 (compound 18: 2,4-dihydroxy-N-[(2-hydroxy-3,5-diiodophenyl)methylidene]benzohydrazide-Minimal Inhibitory Concentration, MIC = 3.91 µg/mL). In addition, we performed the in vitro screening of antiproliferative activity and also assessed the acute toxicity of six hydrazide-hydrazones. The following human cancer cell lines were used: 769-P, HepG2, H1563, and LN-229, and the viability of the cells was assessed using the MTT method. The HEK-293 cell line was used as a reference line. The toxicity was tested in vivo on Danio rerio embryos using the Fish Embryo Acute Toxicity (FET) test procedure according to OECD No. 236. The inhibitory concentration values obtained in the in vitro test showed that N-[(4-nitrophenyl)methylidene]-2,4-dihydroxybenzhydrazide (21) inhibited cancer cell proliferation the most, with an extremely low IC50 (Inhibitory Concentration) value, estimated at 0.77 µM for LN-229. In addition, each of the compounds tested was selective against cancer cell lines. The compounds with a nitrophenyl substituent were the most promising in terms of inhibition cancer cell proliferation. The toxicity against zebrafish embryos and larvae was also very low or moderate.

Design and biological evaluation of 3-substituted quinazoline-2,4(1H,3H)-dione derivatives as dual c-Met/VEGFR-2-TK inhibitors

The dual c-Met/vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2 (VEGFR-2) TK inhibition is a good strategy to overcome therapeutic resistance to small molecules VEGFR-2 inhibitors. In this study, we designed 3-substituted quinazoline-2,4(1H,3H)-dione derivatives as dual c-Met/VEGFR-2 TK inhibitors. We introduced new synthetic methods for reported derivatives of 3-substituted quinazoline-2,4(1H,3H)-dione 2a-g, in addition to the preparation of some new derivatives namely, 3 and 4a-j. Three compounds namely, 2c, 4b, and 4e showed substantial amount of inhibition for both c-Met and VEGFR-2 TK (IC₅₀ range 0.052-0.084 µM). Both compounds 4b, 4e showed HB with highly conserved residue Asp1222 in the HB region of c-Met TK. For VEGFR-2 TK, compound 4b showed HB with a highly conserved residue Asp1046 in the HB region. Compound 4e showed HB with Glu885 and Asp1046. Moreover, in silico prediction of pharmacokinetic and physicochemical parameters of target compounds was carried out using SwissADME website. The quinazoline-2,4(1H,3H)-dione derivatives are promising antiproliferative candidates that require further optimisation.HighlightsNew 3-substituted quinazoline-2,4(1H,3H)-dione derivatives were synthesised and characterised.Compounds 4b and 4e showed higher cytotoxic activity than cabozantinib against HCT-116 colorectal cell lines.Both compounds 4b and 4e showed less toxicity to WI38 normal cell line compared to HCT 116 colon cancer cell line.Compound 4b was superior to cabozantinib in VEGFR-2 inhibition while compound 2c was equipotent to cabozantinib.Compounds 4b and 4e showed remarkable c-Met inhibitory activity.Compounds 4b and 4e arrested cell cycle and induced significant levels of apoptosis.In silico ADME prediction revealed high oral bioavailability and enhanced water solubility of target compounds as compared to cabozantinib.Target compounds interacted with both c-Met and VEGFR-2 active site in similar way to cabozantinib.

Synthesis and Anticancer Evaluation of Novel Indole Based Arylsulfonylhydrazides against Human Breast Cancer Cells

A series of novel indole based sulfonohydrazide derivatives (5a-k) containing morpholine heterocyclic ring were synthesized through multistep chemical reactions. The target compounds (5a-k) were prepared by the reaction of substituted phenyl sulfonylhydrazides (2a-k) with morpholine derivative of indole 3-carboxaldehyde. All the target compounds were screened for their anticancer activity in vitro against the estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer line MCF-7 and triple-negative breast cancer cell line, MDA-MB-468. It was found that among all the evaluated compounds, the chemotype 4-chloro-N'-((1-(2-morpholinoethyl)-1H-indol-3-yl)methylene)benzenesulfonohydrazide (5f) showed promising inhibition of both MCF-7 and MDA-MB-468 cancer cells with the respective IC₅₀ values of 13.2 μM and 8.2 μM. Compound 5f was found to be nontoxic against HEK 293 noncancerous cells in the studied concentration range, therefore indicating that such chemotypes inhibit the proliferation of cancerous cells selectively and significantly.

Exploring novel nitrofuranyl sulfonohydrazides as anti-Leishmania and anti-cancer agents: Synthesis, in vitro efficacy and hit identification

Leishmaniasis and cancer are two deadly diseases that plague the human population. There are a limited number of drugs available for the treatment of these diseases; however, their overuse has resulted in pathogenic resistance. Recent studies have indicated the repurposing of nitro‐containing compounds to be a new avenue into finding new treatments. In this study, new nitrofuranyl sulfonohydrazide derivatives were synthesized and evaluated for their in vitro antileishmanial and anticancer activities. The analogue 2h, featuring biphenyl moiety exhibited selective (SI > 10) submicromolar activity (IC₅₀ 0.97 μM) against acute promyelocytic leukemia cells hence was identified anticancer hit. This study revealed no antileishmanial hit. However, several promising analogues were uncovered and are worthy of further structural modifications to improve their toxicity and bioactivity profiles.

Development of New Antimycobacterial Sulfonyl Hydrazones and 4-Methyl-1,2,3-thiadiazole-Based Hydrazone Derivatives

Fifteen 4-methyl-1,2,3-thiadiazole-based hydrazone derivatives 3a–d and sulfonyl hydrazones 5a–k were synthesized. They were characterized by ¹H-NMR, ¹³C NMR, and HRMS. Mycobacterium tuberculosis strain H37Rv was used to assess their antimycobacterial activity. All compounds demonstrated significant minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) from 0.07 to 0.32 µM, comparable to those of isoniazid. The cytotoxicity was evaluated using the standard MTT-dye reduction test against human embryonic kidney cells HEK-293T and mouse fibroblast cell line CCL-1. 4-Hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl substituted 1,2,3-thiadiazole-based hydrazone derivative 3d demonstrated the highest antimycobacterial activity (MIC = 0.0730 µM) and minimal associated cytotoxicity against two normal cell lines (selectivity index SI = 3516, HEK-293, and SI = 2979, CCL-1). The next in order were sulfonyl hydrazones 5g and 5k with MIC 0.0763 and 0.0716 µM, respectively, which demonstrated comparable minimal cytotoxicity. All compounds were subjected to ADME/Tox computational predictions, which showed that all compounds corresponded to Lipinski’s Ro5, and none were at risk of toxicity. The suitable scores of molecular docking performed on two crystallographic structures of enoyl-ACP reductase (InhA) provide promising insight into possible interaction with the InhA receptor. The 4-methyl-1,2,3-thiadiazole-based hydrazone derivatives and sulfonyl hydrazones proved to be new classes of lead compounds having the potential of novel candidate antituberculosis drugs.

Hybrids of Imatinib with Quinoline: Synthesis, Antimyeloproliferative Activity Evaluation, and Molecular Docking

Imatinib (IMT) is the first-in-class BCR-ABL commercial tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI). However, the resistance and toxicity associated with the use of IMT highlight the importance of the search for new TKIs. In this context, heterocyclic systems, such as quinoline, which is present as a pharmacophore in the structure of the TKI inhibitor bosutinib (BST), have been widely applied. Thus, this work aimed to obtain new hybrids of imatinib containing quinoline moieties and evaluate them against K562 cells. The compounds were synthesized with a high purity degree. Among the produced molecules, the inhibitor 4-methyl-N3-(4-(pyridin-3-yl)pyrimidin-2-yl)-N1-(quinolin-4-yl)benzene-1,3-diamine (2g) showed a suitable reduction in cell viability, with a CC₅₀ value of 0.9 µM (IMT, CC₅₀ = 0.08 µM). Molecular docking results suggest that the interaction between the most active inhibitor 2g and the BCR-ABL1 enzyme occurs at the bosutinib binding site through a competitive inhibition mechanism. Despite being less potent and selective than IMT, 2g is a suitable prototype for use in the search for new drugs against chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), especially in patients with acquired resistance to IMT.

Quinoline–hydrazone hybrids as dual mutant EGFR inhibitors with promising metallic nanoparticle loading: rationalized design, synthesis, biological investigation and computational studies

A novel quinoline–hydrazone hybrid induced apoptosis in MCF-7 cells through dual mutant EGFR inhibition with promising metallic nanoparticle loading.

Design, Synthesis, and Antipoliferative Activities of Novel Substituted Imidazole-Thione Linked Benzotriazole Derivatives

A new series of benzotriazole moiety bearing substituted imidazol-2-thiones at N1 has been designed, synthesized and evaluated for in vitro anticancer activity against the different cancer cell lines MCF-7(breast cancer), HL-60 (Human promyelocytic leukemia), and HCT-116 (colon cancer). Most of the benzotriazole analogues exhibited promising antiproliferative activity against tested cancer cell lines. Among all the synthesized compounds, BI9 showed potent activity against the cancer cell lines such as MCF-7, HL-60 and HCT-116 with IC₅₀ 3.57, 0.40 and 2.63 µM, respectively. Compound BI9 was taken up for elaborate biological studies and the HL-60 cells in the cell cycle were arrested in G₂/M phase. Compound BI9 showed remarkable inhibition of tubulin polymerization with the colchicine binding site of tubulin. In addition, compound BI9 promoted apoptosis by regulating the expression of pro-apoptotic protein BAX and anti-apoptotic proteins Bcl-2. These results provide guidance for further rational development of potent tubulin polymerization inhibitors for the treatment of cancer.

The bioactivity of benzenesulfonyl hydrazones: A short review

The synthesis and biological activity evaluation of benzenesulfonyl hydrazones is quite frequently encountered in scientific literature. This class of compounds is very interesting due to the wide spectrum of potential applications in the field of medicinal chemistry. The benzenesulfonyl hydrazones possess mainly antibacterial, antifungal, anticancer, antidepressant properties, activity against Alzheimer's disease, insecticidal activity and ability to inhibit the activity of enzymes. This review is an attempt to gather the literature findings on the most promising bioactive benzenesulfonyl hydrazones.

Activity prediction of aminoquinoline drugs based on deep learning

The results of the traditional prediction method for the activity of aminoquinoline drugs are inaccurate, so the prediction method for the activity of aminoquinoline drugs based on the deep learning is designed. The molecular holographic distance vector method was used to describe the molecular structure of 40 aminoquinoline compounds, and the principal component regression method was used for modeling and quantitative analysis. Two methods were used to predict the activity of aminoquinoline drugs. The correlation coefficients of the results obtained from the two sets of activity data and the cross test were 0.9438 and 0.9737, and 0.8305 and 0.9098, respectively. Our data suggested that method for the activity prediction of aminoquinoline drugs based on deep learning studied in this paper can better predict the activity of aminoquinoline drugs and provide a strong basis for the activity prediction of aminoquinoline drugs.

Theoretical and Spectroscopic Characterization of API-Related Azoles in Solution and in Solid State

Azoles are a family of five-membered azacyclic compounds with relevant biological and pharmacological activity. Different subclasses of azoles are defined depending on the atomic arrangement and the number of nitrogen atoms present in the ring: pyrazoles, indazoles, imidazoles, benzimidazoles, triazoles, benzotriazoles, tetrazoles and pentazoles. The complete characterization of their structure and the knowledge about their crystal packing and physical and chemical properties are of vital importance for the advancement in the design of new azole-containing drugs. In this review, we report the latest recent contributions to azole chemistry, in particular, those in which theoretical studies have been performed.

1,2,3-Triazole-containing hybrids as potential anticancer agents: Current developments, action mechanisms and structure-activity relationships

Anticancer agents are critical for the cancer treatment, but side effects and the drug resistance associated with the currently used anticancer agents create an urgent need to explore novel drugs with low side effects and high efficacy. 1,2,3-Triazole is privileged building block in the discovery of new anticancer agents, and some of its derivatives have already been applied in clinics or under clinical trials for fighting against cancers. Hybrid molecules occupy an important position in cancer control, and hybridization of 1,2,3-triazole framework with other anticancer pharmacophores may provide valuable therapeutic intervention for the treatment of cancer, especially drug-resistant cancer. This review emphasizes the recent advances in 1,2,3-triazole-containing hybrids with anticancer potential, covering articles published between 2015 and 2019, and the structure-activity relationships, together with mechanisms of action are also discussed.

Synthesis, molecular docking and evaluation of novel sulfonyl hydrazones as anticancer agents and COX-2 inhibitors

In trying to develop new anticancer agents, a series of sulfonylhydrazones were synthesized. All synthesized compounds were checked for identity and purity using elemental analysis, TLC and HPLC and were characterized by their melting points, FT-IR and NMR spectral data. All synthesized compounds were evaluated for their cytotoxic activity against prostate cancer (PC3), breast cancer (MCF-7) and L929 mouse fibroblast cell lines. Among them, N'-[(2-chloro-3-methoxyphenyl)methylidene]-4-methylbenzenesulfonohydrazide (3k) showed the most potent anticancer activity against both cancer cells with good selectivity (IC₅₀ = 1.38 μM on PC3 with SI = 432.30 and IC₅₀ = 46.09 μM on MCF-7 with SI = 12.94). Further investigation confirmed that 3k displayed morphological alterations in PC3 and MCF-7 cells and promoted apoptosis through down-regulation of the Bcl-2 and upregulation of Bax expression. Additionally, compound 3k was identified as the most potent COX-2 inhibitor (91% inhibition) beside lower COX-1 inhibition. Molecular docking of the tested compounds represented important binding modes which may be responsible for their anticancer activity via inhibition of the COX-2 enzyme. Overall, the lead compound 3k deserves further development as a potential anticancer agent. Sulfonylhydrazones was synthesized and N'-[(2-chloro-3-methoxyphenyl)methylidene]-4- methylbenzenesulfonohydrazide (3k) was identified as the most potent anticancer agent and COX-2 inhibitor. In addition, this compound docked inside the active site of COX-2 succesfully.

Synthesis, crystal structure and Hirshfeld surface analysis of 2-chloro-3-[(E)-(2-phenyl-hydrazinyl-idene)meth-yl]quinoline

A new quinoline-based hydrazone, C16H12ClN3, was synthesized by a condensation reaction of 2-chloro-3-formyl-quinoline with phenyl-hydrazine. The quinoline ring system is essentially planar (r.m.s. deviation = 0.012 Å), and forms a dihedral angle of 8.46 (10)° with the phenyl ring. The mol-ecule adopts an E configuration with respect to the central C=N bond. In the crystal, mol-ecules are linked by a C-H⋯π-phenyl inter-action, forming zigzag chains propagating along the [10] direction. The N-H hydrogen atom does not participate in hydrogen bonding but is directed towards the phenyl ring of an adjacent mol-ecule, so linking the chains via weak N-H⋯π inter-actions to form of a three-dimensional structure. The Hirshfeld surface analysis of the crystal structure indicates that the most important contributions to the crystal packing are from H⋯H (35.5%), C⋯H/H⋯C (33.7%), Cl⋯H/H⋯Cl (12.3%), N⋯H/H⋯N (9.5%) contacts.