Novel Melatonin Derivatives: Synthesis, Anticancer Evaluations and Molecular-Docking Study

Alsayed, Mahmoud; El-Kady, Dina S.; Tantawy, Mohamed A; AbdElhalim, Mervat M.; Elazabawy, Samia R.; Abdallah, Amira E. M.; Elmegeed, Gamal A

doi:10.21608/ejchem.2020.49430.3016

Novel Melatonin Derivatives: Synthesis, Anticancer Evaluations and Molecular-Docking Study

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Helwan University; Ain Helwan, Cairo 11795, A. R. Egypt

² Hormones Department, Medical Research Division, National Research Centre, Dokki, Giza, Egypt

³ Ain Helwan

10.21608/ejchem.2020.49430.3016

Abstract

Many studies mentioned that Melatonin considers an anti-cancer agent. So in this study, a lot of novel Melatonin derivatives incorporated different heterocyclic ring systems such as triazole, thiadiazole, tetrazole, thiazole, thiophene and pyrazole were synthesized. The synthesized compounds 5, 6, 8, 11, 15, 16 and 19 were evaluated as anti-cancer by using two human cancer cell lines, Breast cancer (MCF7) and colon cancer (HCT-116). The synthesized compounds showed a gradual decrease in the cell viability of the two cell lines. We also observed that compound 16 was the lowest IC50 and the highest cytotoxic effects against the two cancer cell lines. Furthermore, the molecular-docking study was employed to determine the possible mode of action of the synthesized compounds against proteins (CDK2 and P53-MDM2) which, were considered to be potential proteins involved in the pathogenesis of cancer. We observed that compound 16 was the best-docked ligand against the targeted proteins, as it displayed the lowest binding energies, critical hydrogen bonds, and hydrophobic interactions compared to other tested compounds.

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