Novel indolyl 1,2,4-triazole derivatives as potential anti-proliferative agents: in silico studies, synthesis, and biological evaluation

Abstract

A new series of indolyl 1,2,4-triazole scaffolds was designed, synthesised, and biologically evaluated for their inhibitory activity against both CDK4 and CDK6. The results ranged from 0.049 μM to 3.031 μM on CDK4 and from 0.075 μM to 1.11 μM on CDK6 when compared to staurosporine, with IC₅₀ values of 1.027 and 0.402 μM, respectively. Moreover, all compounds were tested for their cytotoxicity against two breast cancer cell lines, MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231. All of the synthesised compounds showed promising anti-proliferative activity, with two compounds Vf (IC₅₀ = 2.91 and 1.914 μM, respectively) and Vg (IC₅₀ = 0.891 and 3.479 μM, respectively) having potent cytotoxic activity in comparison to the reference staurosporine (IC₅₀ = 3.144 and 4.385 μM, respectively). Vf and Vg were also found to significantly induce apoptosis to 45.33% and 37.26% (control = 1.91%) where Vf arrested the cell cycle at the S phase while Vg arrested the cycle at the G₀/G₁ phase. The binding mode and interactions of all compounds were studied and found to mimic those of the FDA approved CDK4/6 inhibitor palbociclib that was used as a reference throughout the study.