Synthesis and biological evaluation of 5-methyl-4-phenyl thiazole derivatives as anticancer agents

New N-(5-methyl-4-phenylthiazol-2-yl)-2-(substituted thio)acetamides were synthesized and studied for their anticancer activity. The title compounds were procured by reacting 2-chloro-N-(5-methyl-4-phenylthiazol-2-yl)acetamide with some mercapto derivatives. The structural elucidation of the compounds was performed by 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR and LC-MS/MS spectral data and elemental analyses. The synthesized compounds were investigated for their antitumor activities against A549 human lung adenocarcinoma cells and NIH/3T3 mouse embryoblast cell line for determining their selective cytotoxicity. 2-[(1-methyl-1H-tetrazol-5-yl)thio]-N-(5-methyl-4-phenylthiazol-2-yl)acetamide (4c) showed high selectivity, and whose IC50 value was determined as 23.30 ± 0.35 µM and >1000 µM against A549 human lung adenocarcinoma cells and NIH/3T3 mouse embryoblast cell lines, respectively. 2-[(1-Methyl-1H-imidazol-2-yl)thio]-N-(5-methyl-4-phenyl thiazol-2-yl)acetamide (4a) and 2-[(1-Methyl-1H-tetrazol-5-yl)thio]-N-(5-methyl-4-phenyl thiazol-2-yl)acetamide (4c) exhibited the highest apoptosis percentage among those tested, but not as high as the standard, cisplatin.