Synthesis, Biological Evaluation and Ligand Based Pharmacophore Modeling of New Aromatic Thiosemicarbazones as Potential Anticancer Agents.

Two series of new aromatic thiosemicarbazone derivatives were synthesized by condensation of -(4-cyanophenyl)hydrazine carbothioamide () and -(4-methylsulfanylphenyl)hydrazine carbothioamide () with appropriate aromatic aldehydes in order to investigate their antiviral and cytostatic potency. The chemical structures of all compounds were fully characterized by elemental analysis and spectroscopic techniques. The results of the bioassays indicated that compounds , , and proved inhibitory against influenza virus A (EC = 13 - 27 μg/mL for strain H1N1 and 9.3 - 18 μg/mL for strain H3N2). Compounds and were the most cytostatic compounds with inhibition of HeLa cell proliferation at an IC = 0.3 μg/mL for and 1.9 μg/mL for . Especially, compound showed the highest cytostatic activity with IC of 0.30, 0.70 and 2.50 μg/mL against HeLa, CEM and L1210 cell lines, respectively. This inhibition range was within the same order of magnitude as that for cisplatin. Furthermore, molecular modeling was carried out to examine the cytostatic activity and determine the best pharmacophore model as a guide for the design and development of potential prodrugs in future studies.