Efficient synthesis of indole-chalcones based glycohybrids and their anticancer activity

Indole based glycosides belong to the class of pharmacologically active molecules and found in diverse natural compounds. Herein, we report the synthesis of 1,2,3-triazole bridged chirally enriched diverse indole-chalcones based glycohybrids. Three series of glycohybrids were designed and efficiently synthesized using d-glucose, d-galactose and d-mannose derived 1-azido glycosides. The reactions sequence involved were, the synthesis of indole derived chalcones which were formed via Claisen-Schmidt condensation reaction and subsequently N-propargylation which leads to the production of N-propargylated indole-chalcones. The N-propargylated indole-chalcones get transformed into 1,2,3-triazole bridged indole-chalcone based glycohybrids by reacting with 1-azido sugar glycosides under click-chemistry reaction conditions. Further, the biological activity of synthesized glycohybrids (n = 27) was assessed in-vitro against MDA-MB231, MCF-7, MDA-MB453 cancer, and MCF-10A normal cell lines. The selected compounds showed potent anti-oncogenic properties against MCF-7 and MDA-MB231 breast cancer cell line with IC₅₀ values of 1.05 µM and 11.40 µM respectively, with very good selectivity index (SI > 161). The active compounds show better binding affinity as compared to co-crystallized inhibitor 1-(tert-butyl)-3-(p-tolyl)-1H-pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidin-4-amine (PP1) with HCK (PTKs) proteins in molecular docking studies.