Development of Chromone–Pyrazole-Based Anticancer Agents

Chemical reactivity of 4-((6-chloro-4-oxo-4H-chromen-3-yl)methylene)-2-phenyloxazol-5(4H)-one towards nitrogen and sulfur nucleophiles, as well as bidentate nucleophiles, has been studied under various conditions. The investigated nucleophilic reactions result in formation of heterocyclic systems, namely pyrazolyloxazolone, pyrazoldihydrotriazinone, chromonylimidazolone, chromonylimidazol, and chromonylbenzo[d]imidazole and chromonyloxathiazepine derivatives. All the synthesized products were screened for their anticancer activity against two cell lines, namely human colon (HCT-116) and mammary gland breast cancer (MCF-7) using the MTT assay. Some of the investigated compounds showed remarkable cytotoxic activities against HCT-116 (IC50 7.74‒82.49 µg/mL) and MCF-7 (IC50 4.98‒92.62 µg/mL) cells in comparison to the standard anticancer drug doxorubicin (IC50 5.23 and 4.17 µg/mL, respectively). Among the tested compounds, pyrazolbenzamide and pyrazoldihydrotriazinone derivatives were the most significant antiproliferative efficacy against the two cell lines. Our findings suggest that the designed compounds may be considered promising antiproliferative agents.