Recent Advances in dehydroacetic acid-clubbed pyridine conjugates: design, synthesis, characterization, molecular docking investigations and evaluation of anti-cancer efficacy

The aim of this study was to synthesize novel pyridine conjugates incorporating dehydroacetic acid via the Krohnke reaction and to evaluate their potential as anti-cancer agents. Materials & methods: The Krohnke reaction has previously been reported using acetic acid as the solvent, here we employed ethanol as the reaction medium. The trisubstituted pyridine derivatives were synthesized via a multistep procedure that involved the reaction of pyridinium bromide salts with chalcone derivatives of dehydroacetic acid. The synthesized hybrids were comprehensively characterized using a range of analytical techniques, including Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, and Mass Spectrometry (MS). These compounds were subjected to in vitro evaluation of their anti-cancer potential against MCF-7 (human breast cancer) and A-549 (human lung cancer) cell lines. The anti-cancer screening results indicate that the synthesized conjugates exhibit potent activity against MCF-7 cells and demonstrate moderate activity against A-549 cell lines. The analysis indicates a binding energy of −9.3 kcal/mol for the 7a derivative, which is closely comparable to that of the standard drug, which exhibits a binding energy of −9.9 kcal/mol.