Breast cancer is a global health concern, with increasing disease burden and disparities in access to healthcare. Late diagnosis and limited treatment options in underserved areas contribute to poor outcomes. In response to this challenge, we developed a novel family of 2-substituted-quinoxaline analogues, combining coumarin and quinoxaline scaffolds known for their anticancer properties. Through a versatile synthetic approach, we designed, synthesized, and characterized a set of 2-substituted quinoxaline derivatives. The antiproliferative activity of the synthesized compounds was assessed toward the MCF-7 breast cancer cells. Our investigations showed that the synthesized compounds exhibit considerable antiproliferative activity toward MCF-7 cells. Notably, compound 3b, among examined compounds, displayed a superior inhibitory effect (IC₅₀ = 1.85 ± 0.11 μM) toward the growth of MCF-7 cells compared to the conventional anticancer drug staurosporine (IC₅₀ = 6.77 ± 0.41 μM) and showed minimal impact on normal cells (MCF-10A cell lines, IC₅₀ = 33.7 ± 2.04 μM). Mechanistic studies revealed that compound 3b induced cell cycle arrest at the G1 transition and triggered apoptosis in MCF-7 cells, as evidenced by increasing the percentage of cells arrested in the G2/M and pre-G1 phases utilizing flow cytometric analysis and Annexin V-FITC/PI analysis. Moreover, compound 3b was found to substantially suppress topoisomerase enzyme activity in MCF-7 cells. Molecular modeling studies further supported the potential of compound 3b as a therapeutic candidate by demonstrating significant binding affinity to the active sites of both topoisomerase II and EGFR proteins. Taken together, the presented 2-substituted-quinoxaline analogues, especially compound 3b, show promise as potential candidates for the development of effective anti-breast cancer drugs.

According to data provided by the World Health Organization (WHO), a total of 2.3 million women across the globe received a diagnosis of breast cancer in the year 2020, and among these cases, 685,000 resulted in fatalities. As the incidence of breast cancer statistics continues to rise, it is imperative to explore new avenues in the ongoing battle against this disease. Therefore, a number of new indolyl-hydrazones were synthesized by reacting the ethyl 3-formyl-1H-indole-2-carboxylate 1 with thiosemicarbazide, semicarbazide.HCl, 4-nitrophenyl hydrazine, 2,4-dinitrophenyl hydrazine, and 4-amino-5-(1H-indol-2-yl)-1,2,4-triazole-3-thione to afford the new hit compounds, which were assigned chemical structures as thiosemicarbazone 3, bis(hydrazine derivative) 5, semicarbzone 6, Schiff base 8, and the corresponding hydrazones 10 and 12 by NMR, elemental analysis, and X-ray single-crystal analysis. The MTT assay was employed to investigate the compounds’ cytotoxicity against breast cancer cells (MCF-7). Cytotoxicity results disclosed potent IC₅₀ values against MCF-7, especially compounds 5, 8, and 12, with IC₅₀ values of 2.73 ± 0.14, 4.38 ± 0.23, and 7.03 ± 0.37 μM, respectively, compared to staurosproine (IC₅₀ = 8.32 ± 0.43 μM). Consequently, the activities of compounds 5, 8, and 12 in relation to cell migration were investigated using the wound-healing test. The findings revealed notable wound-healing efficacy, with respective percentages of wound closure measured at 48.8%, 60.7%, and 51.8%. The impact of the hit compounds on cell proliferation was assessed by examining their apoptosis-inducing properties. Intriguingly, compound 5 exhibited a significant enhancement in cell death within MCF-7 cells, registering a notable increase of 39.26% in comparison to the untreated control group, which demonstrated only 1.27% cell death. Furthermore, the mechanism of action of compound 5 was scrutinized through testing against kinase receptors. The results revealed significant kinase inhibition, particularly against PI3K-α, PI3K-β, PI3K-δ, CDK2, AKT-1, and EGFR, showcasing promising activity, compared to standard drugs targeting these receptors. In the conclusive phase, through in vivo assay, compound 5 demonstrated a substantial reduction in tumor volume, decreasing from 106 mm³ in the untreated control to 56.4 mm³. Moreover, it significantly attenuated tumor proliferation by 46.9%. In view of these findings, the identified leads exhibit promises for potential development into future medications for the treatment of breast cancer, as they effectively hinder both cell migration and proliferation.

Novel composites of Ag and ZnO nanoparticles with prepared transition metal complexes were obtained. The transition metal complexes are obtained by the interaction of the ligand N,N’-bis(salicylaldehyde)-o-phenylenediamine(H₂B) with some transition metal ions (Co(II), Ni(II), Cu(II) and Zn(II)). The structures of the ligand and the formed complexes were characterized by elemental analysis, FTIR, UV-Vis, ¹HNMR, mass spectra, thermal (TG/DTA), magnetic and conductivity measurements. The obtained complexes have the molecular formula [MB(H₂O)_x]. yH₂O. The found conductivity revealed the non-electrolytic behavior of the formed complexes. The magnetic susceptibility and UV-Vis spectra indicated the octahedral structure of the formed complexes. The thermodynamic and kinetic parameters are estimated for the formed complexes. The interaction of the formed compounds with the FM-DNA was tested. The evaluation of the binding constant (K_b) using Bensi-Hildebrand plot, revealed the moderate interaction with electrostatic behavior. Silver and zinc oxide nanoparticles were prepared and characterized by XRD, UV-Vis, FTIR spectra and TEM analysis. The biological activity of the synthesized composites of Ag and ZnO nanoparticles with the prepared transition metal complexes were tested against some Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria as well as Fungi. The obtained inhibition zone supported the enhancement in the activity of the prepared compounds towards the target microorganism after forming the composites. Also, the interaction with the E.coli protein (FabH, PDB code: 1HNJ) was tested and evaluated using the docking operation with aid of some computational chemistry software. The obtained results agreed well with our experimental work.

Gold nanoparticles (GNPs) have been proposed as carriers for drugs to improve their intrinsic therapeutic activities and to overcome pharmacokinetic problems. In this study, novel nanosystems constituted by a model β-diketo acid (DKA) grafted to the surface of GNPs were designed and synthesized following the “multivalent high-affinity” binding strategy. These first nanoscale DKA prototypes showed improved inhibition of HIV-1 integrase (HIV-1 IN) catalytic activities as compared with free DKA ligands.

The present synthetic strategy involves the synthesis of indolyl-triazolo-thiadiazole heterocyclic ring systems 8–13 from the condensation of 4-amino-5-(1H-indol-2-yl)-3H-1,2,4-triazole-3-thione 1 with the aromatic carboxylic acid derivatives 2–7 in presence of POCl₃ for 1 h. All compounds were obtained in very good yields and have been well-characterized using spectroscopic techniques. Exclusively, good quality crystals from the target organic hybrid 8-(1H-indol-2-yl)-5-(p-tolyl)-[1,2,4]triazolo [3,4-b][1,3,4]thiadiazole 9 were obtained and found suitable for X-ray single crystal diffraction measurement, which is used to confirm and analyze the molecular and supramolecular structure aspects of 9. The solid-state structure of the synthesized molecule 9 agrees very well with other characterizations. The packing of 9 is dominated by the N…H, S…H, C…C and S…C non-covalent interactions, which agree with the Hirshfeld surface analysis. The percentages of these contacts are calculated to be 20.3%, 5.4%, 9.4% and 4.3%, respectively.

The regiospecific S-benzylation/allylation of two 4-aryl-5-indolyl-1,2,4-triazole-3-thione precursors was carried out using Et₃N as a base. Allyl group migration from exocyclic sulfur to the triazole nitrogen (N3) was successfully achieved in a short time via thermal fusion without the need for any catalyst. The allylation of indole nitrogen, along with exocyclic sulfur or triazole nitrogen (N3), was carried out using K₂CO₃ as stronger base. S,N-Diallylated products were converted to N,N-diallylated analogues using a simple fusion approach. Structural analyses of the two newly synthesized hybrids 2b and 5b investigated via the X-ray diffraction of a single crystal combined with Hirshfeld calculations. The compound 5b was crystallized in a monoclinic crystal system and the P2₁/c space group, whereas in compound 2b, the crystal system comprises the less symmetric triclinic and P − 1 space group. The asymmetric unit contains one and two molecules of 5b and 2b, respectively, while the unit cell contains four molecules in both cases. Hirshfeld analysis was performed in both systems to analyze the non-covalent interactions that control molecular packing. For 5b, C…H, N…H, S…H, Cl…N and H…H interactions are the most significant. Their percentages are 23.7, 8.8, 4.5, 1.2 and 48.2, respectively. In the case of 2b, the Cl…C, S…N, C…H, H…H and N…H interactions have the upper hand in molecular packing. In one unit, the percentages of these contacts are 2.3, 0.9, 26.8, 38.7 and 9.3%, while in the other unit, the corresponding values are 4.4, 1.3, 22.1, 43.6 and 9.0%, respectively.