Synthesis, anticancer activity and molecular docking of new quinolines, quinazolines and 1,2,4-triazoles with...

Recently, heterocyclic compounds such as pyrido [2,3-d] pyrimidinones, 1,2,4-triazolopyrimidines, pyrimidoquinazolines, and quinoline derivatives have gained attention from researchers due to their pharmacological and biological activities. To synthesize new compounds, quinoline-2-thioxopyrido [2,3-d] pyrimidinone (1) and methylthioquinoline-pyrido [2,3-d] pyrimidinones (2) were used as starting materials. The new compounds synthesized were quinoline-pyrido [2,3-d] (DeGoey et al., 2013; Gouda et al., 2020; Dangolani et al., 2018) [1, 2,4]triazolopyrimidinones (5a-d), 2-methylsulfonyl-quinoline-pyrido [2,3-d]pyrimidinone (6), pyrido [2,3-d]pyrimidine derivatives, pyridopyrimido (Gouda et al., 2020; DeGoey et al., 2013) 2,12,1-b] quinazoline (9), pyrido [(Khajouei et al., 2021; Gouda et al., 2020) 3,23,2-e]bis (1,2,4-triazole)pyrimidine (12a,b) and pyridopyrimido-diquinazoline-dione (16) derivatives. These compounds were synthesized with high efficiency, producing yields ranging from 69% to 90%, under moderate conditions, through treating (2) or (10) with various reagents such as anthranilic acid, phosphorus oxychloride, hydrazine hydrate, formic acid, glacial acetic acid, arylamine (aniline, 4-chloroaniline, or 4-methoxyaniline), and sec-amine (piperazine or morpholine). The new structures of the synthesized compounds were verified using various spectroscopic procedures, such as IR, NMR, and mass spectra. Molecular docking studies were carried out to investigate and discuss how the prepared compounds bind to amino acids such as Estrogen Receptor alpha, EGFR, and NADPH oxidase protein. Also, the synthesized products were tested for their anticancer and antioxidant activities against the (MCF-7) breast carcinoma cell line and human normal Retina pigmented epithelium cells (RPE-1). The study on the structure-activity relationship (SAR) established a correlation between the chemical structure of the newly synthesized compounds and their anticancer activity. The findings suggest that compounds 5a-d, 9,12a-b, and 16 exhibited promising anticancer activity and antioxidant effects as measured by DPPH inhibition.