Synthesis of some novel 6′-(4-chlorophenyl)-3,4′-bipyridine-3′-carbonitriles: assessment of their antimicrobial and cytotoxic activity

A series of novel substituted 6′-(4-chlorophenyl)-3,4′-bipyridine-3′-carbonitriles with incorporated pyrazole and/or triazole moieties have been synthesized using 2-(6′-(4-chlorophenyl)-3′-cyano-3,4′-bipyridin-2′-yloxy)acetohydrazide (3) as starting material. Also, the key intermediate3reacted with aromatic aldehydes and tosyl chloride to give the corresponding Schiff bases and tosyl hydrazide derivatives, respectively. The antimicrobial of these newly synthesized compounds was evaluated againstBacillus subtilisas Gram-positive bacteria andTrichoderma virideas a fungus; some of these compounds such as5,6,7,8,10,12, and14showed excellent activities as antimicrobial agents. Moreover, the cytotoxic activity of the most active compounds was assessed in vitro against human tumor liver cancer cell line (HEPG2); compounds8,10,13a, and14showed potent activities relative to Doxorubicin which was used as a reference standard drug in this study.