Synthesis of 1,2,3-Triazole Tethered Indole Derivatives: Evaluation of Anticancer Activity and Molecular Docking Studies

Cancer is a major death-causing disease all over the world for the past few decades. A novel series of 1,2,3-triazole tethered indole (7a-l) derivatives have been synthesized and their structures were confirmed by (HNMR)-H-1, (CNMR)-C-13, and mass spectral data. All these compounds (7a -l) were screened for anticancer activity against two human cancer cell lines such as MCF-7 and HepG-2 cells by MTT assay. Compounds substituted with 4-hydroxy, 4-methoxy, 2-methyl, and 3-acetyl groups exhibited more potent activity against MCF-7 and HepG-2 cell lines with best IC50 values than standard reference Doxorubicin. Molecular docking studies performed on crystal structures of Aurora kinase-1 and DNA topoisomerase-2 alpha showed remarkable binding affinity values and key interactions as compared to the standard reference Doxorubicin.