Thiazole-based nitrogen mustards: Design, synthesis, spectroscopic studies, DFT calculation, molecular docking, and antiproliferative activity against selected human cancer cell lines

• A series of thiazole nitrogen mustards was synthesized.
• Some compounds showed high antiproliferative activity and low toxicity.
• Computer simulations with DNA-binding site of hTopoI and hTopoII were performed.
• Calculation of interaction energies in complexes with guanine were performed.
• The cellular localization for selected compound was performed.

Synthesis, characterization and investigation of antiproliferative activity of ten thiazole-based nitrogen mustard against human cancer cells lines (MV4-11, A549, MCF-7 and HCT116) and normal mouse fibroblast (BALB/3T3) is presented. The structures of novel compounds were determined using 1H and 13C NMR, FAB(+)-MS, and elemental analyses. Among the derivatives, 5b, 5c, 5e, 5f and 5i were found to exhibit high activity against human leukaemia MV4-11 cells with IC50 values of 2.17–4.26 μg/ml. The cytotoxic activity of compound 5c and 5f against BALB/3T3 cells is up to 20 times lower than against cancer cell lines. Our results also show that compounds 5e and 5i have very strong activity against MCF-7 and HCT116 with IC50 values of 3.02–4.13 μg/ml. Moreover, spectroscopic characterization and cellular localization for selected compound were performed. In order to identify potential drug targets we perform computer simulations with DNA-binding site of hTopoI and hTopoII and quantum chemical calculation of interaction and binding energies in complexes of the five most active compounds with guanine.

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