Synthesis and Molecular Docking Studies of New Tetrazole-acetamide Derivatives as Anti-cancer Agent

The chemistry of condensed heterocyclic molecules in terms of their diverse biological properties and role in drug development has been the subject of numerous publications. Tetrazole is a naturally occurring chemical that has been used to create several commercially available drugs and as a result, plays an important role in pharmaceutical chemistry. The current study aimed to create and synthesize seven new 2,5-disubstituted-tetrazole-acetamide derivatives 3a–3g via an N-alkylation reaction of 5-(4-bromophenyl)-2H-tetrazole or 5-(4-chlorophenyl)-2H-tetrazole 1a,1b, and N-acetamide derivatives 2a–2f, and 2g in CH3CN using potassium carbonate as a base in good yields. New molecules were assigned based on nuclear magnetic resonance results (1H, 13C NMR, and two-dimensional-NMR [heteronuclear single quantum coherence spectroscopy [HSQC]), along with mass spectrometry (EI-MS) techniques. The products' biological activities were confirmed using the tetrazolium (MTT) assay against MCF-7 (breast cancer) and PC3 (prostate cancer) cells and their effects on the normal hepatic cell line, WRL68. Results showed that compounds 3e-3g inhibited PC3 cells with average IC50 values of 32.59, 54.99, and 55.53 μM, respectively. Compounds 3a and 3b demonstrated cytotoxicity against the MCF-7 cell line, with average IC50 values of 94.25 and 68.16 μM, respectively. Compounds 3a, 3c, and 3e-3g on the 3ERT and 3ZK6 receptors demonstrated strong binding capabilities and improved protein interactions according to molecular docking experiments.