A comprehensive review on thiazole based conjugates as anti-cancer agents

Over the past few decades, a significant number of anticancer drugs have been developed, both natural and synthetic. Thiazole, a 5-membered distinctive heterocyclic motif with sulphur and nitrogen atoms, is one of the heterocyclic compounds and functions as the primary core scaffold in a number of crucial drugs. Some therapeutically used and FDA approved anticancer medications, including dasatinib, dabrafenib, ixabepilone, patellamide A, and epothilone, are fundamentally composed of thiazole nuclei. Thiazole nucleus-containing drugs, such as nizatidine (an H2 receptor antagonist), abafungin (anti-fungal), amiphenazole (anti-dote), ritonavir (antiretroviral), sulfazole (anti-microbial), tiazofurin (anti-cancer), etc. possessed a wide spectrum of therapeutic effect. Thiazole-containing substances are currently being developed successfully as potential inhibitors of a number of biological targets, including enzyme-linked receptor(s) found on the cell membrane (i.e., polymerase inhibitors) and the cell cycle (i.e., microtubular inhibitors). Additionally, it has been demonstrated that these substances exhibit low toxicity, strong anticancer activity, and great efficacy. This review summarises recent findings on thiazoles and describes their design, synthesis, biological significance in the development of anticancer drugs, structure activity relationship (SAR) and molecular docking studies. The results might help scientists develop more effective and bio-target-specific anticancer therapeutic compounds.