No abstract

Selenium compounds are pivotal in medicinal chemistry for their antitumoral and antioxidant properties. Forty seven acylselenoureas have been designed and synthesized following a fragment-based approach. Different scaffolds, including carbo- and hetero-cycles, along with mono- and bi-cyclic moieties, have been linked to the selenium containing skeleton. The dose- and time-dependent radical scavenging activity for all of the compounds were assessed using the in vitro 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and 2,2′-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS) assays. Some of them showed a greater radical scavenging capacity at low doses and shorter times than ascorbic acid. Therefore, four compounds were evaluated to test their protective effects against H2O2-induced oxidative stress. One derivative protected cells against H2O2-induced damage, increasing cell survival by up to 3.6-fold. Additionally, in vitro cytotoxic activity of all compounds was screened against several cancer cells. Eight compounds were selected to determine their half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) values towards breast and lung cancer cells, along with their selectivity indexes. The breast cancer cells turned out to be much more sensitive than the lung. Two compounds (5d and 10a) stood out with IC50 values between 4.2 μM and 8.0 μM towards MCF-7 and T47D cells, with selectivity indexes greater than 22.9. In addition, compound 10b exhibited dual antioxidant and cytotoxic activities. Although further evidence is needed, the acylselenourea scaffold could be a feasible frame to develop new dual agents.

Currently, cancer is one of the major health problems of the human population and prominent cause of death. Thiazole ring has demonstrated many pharmacological activities including anticancer. This scaffold has been found alone or incorporated into the diversity of therapeutic active agents such as tiazofurin, dasatinib, and bleomycin, which are well-known antineoplastic drugs. Recently, most of the compounds isolated from natural sources containing thiazole moiety exhibit notable cytotoxicities and present antitumor potential. In this context, several structural changes have been made in the original structure, such as the incorporation of different substituents or the fusion with other carbo-and heterocycles, in order to increase the antitumoral potency. Related to mechanism of action of these derivatives, some of them act through kinase modulation, polymerization inhibition of microtubule, pro-matrix metalloproteinase activation, signal transducer activation of transcription 3, histone deacetylase inhibition, etc.