New chalcone tethered pyrazole derivatives: synthesis, molecular docking, ADME-T & DFT study

The chalcone scaffold pyrazole is important in organic and medicinal chemistry. This study presents the design and synthesis of new chalcone-coupled pyrazole derivatives (1a-1o). The new compounds were characterized using FT-IR, 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR, GC-MS, elemental analysis, and cytotoxic analysis on MCF-7 and HepG2 cancer cell lines. The synthesized compounds also underwent molecular docking, ADMET (absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion, and toxicity), and DFT (density functional theory) studies.
Compound 1a showed high cytotoxic activity against MCF-7 cells (LC50, 0.62 ± 0.01 µM), outperforming standard Doxorubicin. Compounds were examined using molecular docking, ADME-T, and DFT calculations. Compound 1a had a higher binding affinity (−10.8 Kcal/mol) than Doxorubicin (−4.7 Kcal/mol). ADME-T profile and pharmacokinetic predictions were performed on the analogs. DFT with the B3LYP/6–311++G (DP) basis set helped determine optimal shape and dimensions. Additional Gaussian 16-based DFT calculations were conducted on compounds (1a-1o). The HOMO-LUMO analysis revealed compound 1a had a significant energy gap (2.5056 eV, from −7.94026 eV to −5.43465 eV).
Compound 1a may be a promising anti-cancer agent.