Synthesis and Molecular Docking of Some Novel 3-Thiazolyl-Coumarins as Inhibitors of VEGFR-2 Kinase

Abstract

One crucial strategy for the treatment of breast cancer involves focusing on the Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Receptor (VEGFR-2) signaling system. Consequently, the development of new (VEGFR-2) inhibitors is of the utmost importance. In this study, novel 3-thiazolhydrazinylcoumarins were designed and synthesized via the reaction of phenylazoacetylcoumarin with various hydrazonoyl halides and α-bromoketones. By using elemental and spectral analysis data (IR, ¹H-NMR, ¹³C-NMR, and Mass), the ascribed structures for all newly synthesized compounds were clarified, and the mechanisms underlying their formation were delineated. The molecular docking studies of the resulting 6-(phenyldiazenyl)-2<i>H</i>-chromen-2-one (<b>3</b>, <b>6a-e</b>, <b>10a-c</b> and <b>12a-c</b>) derivatives were assessed against VEGFR-2 and demonstrated comparable activities to that of Sorafenib (approved medicine) with compounds <b>6d</b> and <b>6b</b> showing the highest binding scores (-9.900 and -9.819 kcal/mol, respectively). The cytotoxicity of the most active thiazole derivatives <b>6d</b>, <b>6b</b>, <b>6c</b>, <b>10c</b> and <b>10a</b> were investigated for their human breast cancer (MCF-7) cell line and normal cell line LLC-Mk2 using MTT assay and Sorafenib as the reference drug. The results revealed that compounds <b>6d</b> and <b>6b</b> exhibited greater anticancer activities (IC₅₀ = 10.5 ± 0.71 and 11.2 ± 0.80 μM, respectively) than the Sorafenib reference drug (IC₅₀ = 5.10 ± 0.49 μM). Therefore, the present study demonstrated that thiazolyl coumarins are potential (VEGFR-2) inhibitors and pave the way for the synthesis of additional libraries based on the reported scaffold, which could eventually lead to the development of efficient treatment for breast cancer.