Thiazolidin-4-one derivatives as antitumor agents against (Caco-2) cell line: synthesis, characterization, in silico and in vitro studies

Abstract

Compounds based on thiazolidinones have drawn particular attention in the field of medicinal chemistry as potential sources of novel drug-like molecules. In this study thiazolidin-4-one derivatives (3–17) were prepared by refluxing a mixture of β-aroylacrylic acid (1) and aryl thiosemicarbazone (2) and characterized using IR and ¹H NMR spectroscopy. In silico, physicochemical descriptors and pharmacokinetic properties were assessed using the SwissADME web tool. Moreover, docking studies of synthesized compounds were performed in order to explore their binding to cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) (PDB code: 5IKT) and p53 (PDB code: 6MXZ). Some synthesized compounds were evaluated for their in vitro cytotoxic activity against colon cancer (Caco-2) cell line. Among the tested compounds, compound (16) showed a higher effect with (IC₅₀ of 70 µg/ml). The synthesized compounds revealed reduced Caspase-3 and p53 gene expression, suggesting the potential antineoplastic effects of these compounds.