Design, Synthesis, and Antitumor Activity of Novel 5-Pyridyl-1,3,4-oxadiazole Derivatives against the Breast Cancer Cell Line MCF-7.

Various 1,3,4-oxadiazole-2-thiol derivatives have considerable potential in the field of antitumor activity. On the basis of the structure of the highly active reported oxadiazole analogues, 36 novel compounds were designed. Their molecular transport properties were predicted using a computer-aided program, and they were then synthesized and tested for anticancer activity against the breast cancer cell line MCF-7. Most of the tested compounds showed excellent to potent cytotoxic activity. Docking studies were carried out to examine the possibilities of the target compounds to become lead compounds in the future after more biological investigations. Compounds 18 and 22 were more active than the reference drug with IC₅₀ values of 0.010 µM and 0.012 µM, respectively, and binding energy scores of -10.32 and -10.25, respectively.