Design, synthesis and cytotoxicity evaluation of pyrazolyl pyrazoline and pyrazolyl aminopyrimidine derivatives as potential anticancer agents

In an attempt to find bio-active heterocyclic analogues, a series of novel 1-(5-(3-(aryl)-1-phenyl-1H-pyrazol-4-yl)-3-(pyridin-3-yl)-4,5-dihydropyrazol-1-yl)ethanones 5a–i and 4-(3-(aryl)-1-phenyl-1H-pyrazol-4-yl)-6-(pyridine-3-yl)pyrimidin-2-amines 6a–i were designed, synthesized, and evaluated for their in vitro cytotoxicity against a panel of human cancer cell lines namely, HeLa (human cervix), NCI-H460 (human lung), PC-3 (human prostate), and NIH-3T3 (mouse embryo fibroblasts) cell lines. Most of these compounds exhibited moderate to good cytotoxicity against the tested cancer cell lines and weak toxicity against normal cell line. Analogs 5f, 5g, 5i, 6b–g showed significant cytotoxicity as compared to the standard drug etoposide. The compound 6g exhibited superior activity with IC50 value of 5.47 ± 0.44 µM against Hela cancer cell line.