Design, synthesis, and antiproliferative investigation of novel quinazolinones incorporating 1,3,4-oxadiazole and 1,2,4-triazole thioether moieties

AbstractIn the current study, a series of 1,3,4-oxadiazole and 1,2,4-triazole derivatives linked to quinazolinone were designed and synthesized by using Phase Transfer Catalysis. The structures of the synthesized compounds were confirmed by their IR, 1H NMR, 13C NMR, and HR-ESI-MS spectroscopic data, and their in vitro antiproliferative activities against A549, Hela, MCF-7 as well as L929 were detected by using CCK-8 assay. The results demonstrated that most of the compounds showed better growth inhibitory effect than 5-FU on A549, Hela, and MCF-7 cell lines. Especially, 2-(5-((3-bromophenyl)thio)-1,3,4-oxadiazole-2-yl)quinazolin-4(3H)-one (8o), 4-amino-5-((4-nitrophenyl)thio)-4H-1,2,4-triazol-3-yl)quinazolin-4(3H)-one (9m) and 2-(4-amino-5-(o-tolylthio)-4H-1,2,4-triazol-3-yl)quinazolin-4(3H)-one (9b) showed good antiproliferative activity against A549 cells with IC50 value of 3.46, 2.96, and 3.44 μM, respectively. 2-(4-Amino-5-((3,5-difluorophenyl)thio)-4H-1,2,4-triazol-3-yl)quinazolin-4(3H)-one (9h) and 4-amino-5-((4-nitrophenyl)thio)-4H-1,2,4-triazol-3-yl)quinazolin-4(3H)-one (9m) had obvious inhibitory effects on Hela cells with IC50 values of 1.76 and 3.91 μM, respectively. 2-(4-Amino-5-((2-chlorophenyl)thio)-4H-1,2,4-triazol-3-yl)quinazolin-4(3H)-one (9i) showed high inhibitory activity against MCF-7 cells with IC50 value of 2.72 μM. Meanwhile, all compounds showed lower cytotoxicity to L929 cells than positive control drug 5-FU. In development, according to the above preliminary observation, these novel quinazolinones incorporating 1,3,4-oxadiazole and 1,2,4-triazole thioether moieties could become potential molecular templates for searching new antitumor agents.Keywords: 1,3,4-oxadiazole1,2,4-triazolequinazolinoneCCK-8cytotoxicity Disclosure statementThe authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.Correction StatementThis article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.Additional informationFundingWe are grateful to the Tianjin Municipal Natural Science Foundation (18JCYBJC94900) for financial support.