Recent Advances in the Biological Activity of s-Triazine Core Compounds

An effective strategy for successful chemotherapy relies on creating compounds with high selectivity against cancer cells compared to normal cells and relatively low cytotoxicity. One such approach is the discovery of critical points in cancer cells, i.e., where specific enzymes that are potential therapeutic targets are generated. Triazine is a six-membered heterocyclic ring compound with three nitrogen replacing carbon-hydrogen units in the benzene ring structure. The subject of this review is the symmetrical 1,3,5-triazine, known as s-triazine. 1,3,5-triazine is one of the oldest heterocyclic compounds available. Because of its low cost and high availability, it has attracted researcher attention for novel synthesis. s-Triazine has a weak base, it has much weaker resonance energy than benzene, therefore, nucleophilic substitution is preferred to electrophilic substitution. Heterocyclic bearing a symmetrical s-triazine core represents an interesting class of compounds possessing a wide spectrum of biological properties such as anti-cancer, antiviral, fungicidal, insecticidal, bactericidal, herbicidal and antimicrobial, antimalarial agents. They also have applications as dyes, lubricants, and analytical reagents. Hence, the group of 1,3,5-triazine derivatives has developed over the years. Triazine is not only the core amongst them, but is also a factor increasing the kinetic potential of the entire derivatives. Modifying the structure and introducing new substituents makes it possible to obtain compounds with broad inhibitory activity on processes such as proliferation. In some cases, s-triazine derivatives induce cell apoptosis. In this review we will present currently investigated 1,3,5-triazine derivatives with anti-cancer activities, with particular emphasis on their inhibition of enzymes involved in the process of tumorigenesis.

Novel phthalimide based analogues: design, synthesis, biological evaluation, and molecular docking studies

Pyrazolylphthalimide derivative 4 was synthesized and reacted with different reagents to afford the target compounds imidazopyrazoles 5-7, pyrazolopyrimidines 9, 12, 14 and pyrazolotriazines 16, 17 containing phthalimide moiety. The prepared compounds were established by different spectral data and elemental analyses. Additionally, all synthesized derivatives were screened for their antibacterial activity against four types of Gram + ve and Gram-ve strains, and for antifungal activity against two fungi micro-organisms by well diffusion method. Moreover, the antiproliferative activity was tested for all compounds against human liver (HepG-2) cell line in comparison with the reference vinblastine. Moreover, drug-likeness and toxicity risk parameters of the newly synthesized compounds were calculated using in silico studies. The data from structure-actvity relationship (SAR) analysis suggested that phthalimide derivative bearing 3-aminopyrazolone moiety, 4 illustrated the best antimicrobial and antitumor activities and might be considered as a lead for further optimization. To investigate the mechanism of the antimicrobial and anticancer activities, enzymatic assay and molecular docking studies were carried out on E. coli topoisomerase II DNA gyrase B and VEGFR-2 enzymes.