Novel thiazole derivatives as effective anti-cancer agents against human osteosarcoma cell line (SaOS-2): Microwave-assisted one-pot three-component synthesis, in vitro anti-cancer studies, and in silico investigations

Abstract

The current research involves the preparation of novel thiazole derivatives, which was carried out via one-pot three-component reaction utilizing conventional and microwave irradiation (MW) methods. The MW method reduced the reaction time and allowed the reactions to be carried out with higher yields. 1H NMR, 13C NMR, EI-MS and FT-IR techniques were employed for the characterization of synthesized compounds. All compounds exhibited anti-cancer activity ranging from 0.190 to 0.273 µg/mL against SaOS-2 cell line and the best activity was shown by compound 4i which exhibited IC50 value = 0.190 ± 0.045 µg/mL. It is evident that the concentration of these compounds is a critical factor in determining their biological efficacy. This dose-dependent relationship highlights the importance of optimizing compound concentrations to achieve maximal therapeutic benefits while minimizing potential side effects. Moreover, these findings demonstrated the potential of thiazole derivatives as promising candidates for anti-cancer drug development and warrant further investigation into their mechanisms of action and therapeutic applications. Molecular modelling was utilized to predict potential interactions of the synthesized compounds that exhibited inhibitory effects. The analyses revealed that compound 4i exhibited strong inhibitory effects against EGFR (docking score: −6.434, MM-GBSA energy: −53.40 kcal/mol) in in silico studies.