2, 3-Diaryl-5-ethylsulfanylmethyltetrahydrofurans as a new class of COX-2 inhibitors and cytotoxic agents.

2,3-Diaryl-5-ethylsulfanylmethyltetrahydrofuran-3-ols were designed and synthesized by the allylations of benzoins followed by iodocyclization and nucleophilic replacement reactions with ethanthiol. These molecules exhibit IC(50) for COX-2 at <10 nM concentration and exhibit average GI(50) over all the 59 human tumor cell lines at microM concentration.