5-aryl-1-arylideneamino-1h-imidazole-2(3h)-thiones: Synthesis and in vitro anticancer evaluation

Abstract

A novel series of N-1 arylidene amino imidazole-2-thiones were synthesized, identified using IR,1H-NMR, and13C-NMR spectral data. Cytotoxic effect of the prepared compounds was carried out utilizing three cancer cell lines; MCF-7 breast cancer, HepG2 liver cancer, and HCT-116 colon cancer cell lines. Imidazole derivative 5 was the most potent of all against three cell lines. DNA flow cytometric analysis showed that, imidazoles 4d and 5 exhibit pre-G1 apoptosis and cell cycle arrest at G2/M phase. The results of the VEGFR-2 and B-Raf kinase inhibition assay revealed that compounds 4d and 5 displayed good inhibitory activity compared with reference drug erlotinib.