Synthesis and biological evaluation of novel 2-aralkyl-5-substituted-6-(4'-fluorophenyl)-imidazo[2,1-b][1,3,4]thiadiazole derivatives as potent anticancer agents.

Levamisole, the imidazo[2,1-b]thiazole derivative has been reported as a potential antitumor agent. In the present study, we synthesized, characterized and evaluated biological activity of its novel analogues with substitution in the aralkyl group and on imidazothiadiazole molecules with same chemical backbone but different side chains namely 2-aralkyl-6-(4'-fluorophenyl)-imidazo[2,1-b][1,3,4]thiadiazoles (SCR1), 2-aralkyl-5-bromo-6-(4'-fluorophenyl)-imidazo[2,1-b][1,3,4]-thiadiazoles (SCR2), 2-aralkyl-5-formyl-6-(4'-fluorophenyl)-imidazo[2,1-b][1,3,4]-thiadiazoles (SCR3) and 2-aralkyl-5-thiocyanato-6-(4'-fluorophenyl)-imidazo[2,1-b][1,3,4]-thiadiazoles (SCR4) on leukemia cells. The cytotoxic studies showed that 3a, 4a, and 4c exhibited strong cytotoxicity while others had moderate cytotoxicity. Among these we chose 4a (IC50, 8 μM) for understanding its mechanism of cytotoxicity. FACS analysis in conjunction with mitochondrial membrane potential and DNA fragmentation studies indicated that 4a induced apoptosis without cell cycle arrest suggesting that it could be used as a potential chemotherapeutic agent.