Synthesis and SAR Study of the Novel Thiadiazole-Imidazole Derivatives as a New Anticancer Agents

In the present study, a novel series of 2-(2-(3-aryl-5-substituted-1,3,4-thiadiazol-2(3H)-ylidene)hydrazinyl)-4,4-diphenyl-1H-imidazol-5(4H)-one derivatives were designed and prepared via the reaction of the most versatile, hitherto unreported 2-(5-oxo-4,4-diphenyl-4,5-dihydro-1H-imidazol-2-yl)-N-phenylhydrazinecarbothioamide with the appropriate hydrazonoyl halides. In addition, some thiazole derivatives were prepared. The structures of the newly synthesized compounds were established based on spectroscopic evidences and their alternative syntheses. Some of the newly synthesized compounds have been evaluated for their anticancer activity against a liver carcinoma cell line HEPG2-1. Moreover, their structure-activity relationship (SAR) was explored for further development in this area. The results indicated that many of the tested compounds showed moderate to high anticancer activity with respective to doxorubicin as a reference drug. Consequently, the new synthesized series of thiadiazole-imidazole derivatives are considered as powerful anticancer agents.