Design, synthesis, <i>in silico</i> , anticancer evaluations of <i>N</i> -acylhydrazone derivatives as STAT3 inhibitors

5 l and 5 h suppressed the growth of MIA PaCa-2 cancer cells and were very less cytotoxic to hTERT-HPNE cells. Additionally, the anticancer efficacy was confirmed against PANC-1 and MCF-7 for <b>5l</b> and <b>5h</b>. Further, <b>5l</b> treatment induced G1/S arrest marked decrease in G2/M and displayed a significant increase in the apoptosis of MIA PaCa-2 cells. 5 l treatment significantly inhibited the phosphorylated level STAT3 and JAK1. In-silico studies confirm the binding affinity and stability and further synthetic modifications and biological investigations can be done to explore the medicinal potential of the derivatives in future.