Natural product-inspired synthesis of thiazolidine and thiazolidinone compounds and their anticancer activities.

Nature makes many pharmacologically active compounds containing thiazolidine and thiazolidinone scaffolds. These privileged structures have been identified in many random screening assays. Molecules containing these core structures have been designed and synthesized, and they show a broad range of anticancer activities in vitro and in vivo. The combinatorial library approach has been demonstrated to be effective in lead discovery and optimization in order to improve the potency and toxicity of these compounds.