Design, synthesis of novel (Z)-2-(3-(4-((3-benzyl-2,4-dioxothiazolidin-5-ylidene)methyl)-1-phenyl-1H-pyrazol-3-yl)phenoxy)-N-arylacetamide derivatives: Evaluation of cytotoxic activity and molecular docking studies

Abstract In an attempt to discover potential cytotoxic agents, a series of novel (Z)-2-(3-(4-((3-benzyl-2,4-dioxothiazolidin-5-ylidene)methyl)-1-phenyl-1H-pyrazol-3-yl) phenoxy)-N-arylacetamide derivatives 11a-n were synthesized in varied steps with acceptable reaction procedures with good yields and characterized by 1H NMR, 13C NMR, IR and ESI-MS spectra. All the novel synthesized derivatives were assessed for their cytotoxic activity against human breast cell line (MCF-7) with different concentration of 0.625  μM, 1.25  μM, 2.5  μM, 5  μM and 10  μM respectively. Biological evaluation assay results were displayed in terms of percentage of cell viability reduction and IC50 values. Most of the screened derivatives demonstrated moderate to promising cytotoxic activity. Some of the derivatives, particularly compound 11d and 11n have shown promising cytotoxic activity with IC50 values 0.604  μM and 0.665  μM compared to standard drug cisplatin and compounds 11a, 11e and 11g also have shown considerable cytotoxic activity and the rest of the derivatives have shown moderate activity. Furthermore, molecular docking calculations and ADME properties of the synthesized molecules are in effective compliance with the cytotoxic evaluation results.