Synthesis, molecular docking, and in-vitro studies of pyrimidine-2-thione derivatives as antineoplastic agents via potential RAS/PI3K/Akt/JNK inhibition in breast carcinoma cells

Sci Rep. 2022 Dec 22;12(1):22146. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-26571-7.

Abstract

In the present investigation, derivatives from (2-6) containing pyrimidine-2-thione moiety incorporated with different heterocycles such as pyrazoline, phenyl pyrazoline, and pyrimidine were synthesized using different methods. These pyrimidine-2-thione derivatives were evaluated in-silico for their capability to inhibit the H-RAS-GTP active form protein with insight to their pharmacokinetics properties. According to our findings, compound 5a was selected for in vitro studies as it has the in-silico top-ranked binding energy. Furthermore, compound 5a induced apoptosis to panels of cancer cell lines with the best IC50 on MCF-7 breast cancer cells (2.617 ± 1.6 µM). This effect was associated with the inhibition of phosphorylated RAS, JNK proteins, and PI3K/Akt genes expression. Thus, compound 5a has upregulated p21 gene and p53 protein levels. Moreover, 5a arrested the cell cycle progression at the sub-G0/G1 phase. In conclusion, the synthesized compound, 5a exhibited potent antineoplastic activity against breast cancer cell growth by targeting RAS/ PI3K/Akt/ JNK signaling cascades.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Antineoplastic Agents* / chemistry
  • Breast Neoplasms* / drug therapy
  • Breast Neoplasms* / pathology
  • Cell Proliferation
  • Drug Screening Assays, Antitumor
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Molecular Docking Simulation
  • Molecular Structure
  • Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases / metabolism
  • Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-akt / metabolism
  • Pyrimidines / therapeutic use
  • Structure-Activity Relationship
  • Thiones / pharmacology

Substances

  • Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-akt
  • Thiones
  • Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases
  • Antineoplastic Agents
  • Pyrimidines