Design, synthesis and in vitro antitumor evaluation of novel pyrazole-benzimidazole derivatives

A series of novel pyrazole-benzimidazole derivatives (6-42) have been designed, synthesized and evaluated for their in vitro antiproliferative activity against the HCT116, MCF-7 and Huh-7 cell lines. Among them, compounds 17, 26 and 35 showed significant antiproliferative activity against HCT116 cell lines with the IC₅₀ values of 4.33, 5.15 and 4.84 μM, respectively. Moreover, fluorescent staining studies showed compound 17 could induce cancer cells apoptosis. The flow cytometry assay revealed that compound 17 could induce cell cycle arrest at G0/G1 phase. All in all, these consequences suggest that pyrazole-benzimidazole derivatives could serve as promising compounds for further research to develop novel and highly potent cancer therapy agents.