Recent advances in indole-thiazole hybrid scaffolds: synthesis, molecular hybridization, and pharmacological potential.

Indole-thiazole hybrids have attracted increasing interest in medicinal chemistry in recent years, combining the privileged indole nucleus with the thiazole ring within a single framework. The indole unit offers opportunities for π-π interactions and hydrogen bonding, while the thiazole ring enables tuning of lipophilicity and electronic properties and can support additional heteroatom-mediated interactions. This review summarizes synthetic approaches, structure-activity relationships (SAR), computational studies, and reported biological activities of indole-thiazole hybrids. The discussed applications include anticancer and antimicrobial studies, antidiabetic activity, and selected enzyme inhibition. Emerging directions such as greener multicomponent routes, structure-based design and docking, and ADMET (Absorption, Distribution, Metabolism, Excretion, and Toxicity) evaluation are highlighted. Finally, key challenges and perspectives for optimizing indole-thiazole hybrids as therapeutic leads are outlined.