Indole analogs as potential anti-breast cancer agents: Design, synthesis, in-vitro bioevaluation with DFT, molecular docking and ADMET studies

Being a belligerent malignancy, triple-negative breast cancer poses unmet clinical challenges due to lack of targeted therapy, rapid growth rate and metastasis, high heterogeneity, and increased risk of recurrence. Diverse 1-(1H-indol-1-yl)-2-((5-aryl-4H-1,2,4-triazol-3-yl)thio))ethanones have been synthesized in substantial yield (81-87 %) by clubbing 1-(chloroacetyl)indoles with substituted triazoles under refluxing conditions of 4-5 h. The indole integrates demonstrated substantial antitumor efficacy in the MTT assay against the MDA-MB-231 cell line and substituting indole moiety with a halogen (bromo) significantly improves the anti-breast cancer action of the synthesized hybrids compared to the unsubstituted ring. Compound 4i featuring halogen substituent on both the indole and phenyl moieties displayed the highest anticancer action with an IC₅₀ value of 2.121 μM The synthetic variants exhibited a notable binding propensity against the EGFR-TK receptor (PDB ID:1M17). Through in-silico ADMET screening, the pharmacological proclivity of the title compounds has been convicted. The notable bioactivity of the indole hybrids projects them as a potential lead in developing anti-breast cancer medications, especially against TNBC.