Synthesis, Characterization, and in Vitro Anticancer Evaluation of 2-Aryl-4-Arylsulfonyl-5-RS-1,3-Oxazoles

A novel series of 4-arylsulfonyl-1,3-oxazoles have been synthesized and characterized by IR, 1H NMR, 13C NMR spectroscopy, elemental analysis, and chromato-mass-spectrometry. The anticancer activities of all the newly synthesized compounds were evaluated via a single high dose (10 µM) against 59 cancer cell lines (without Melanoma SK-MEL-5) by the National Cancer Institute according to its screening protocol. Among these compounds, 2-[4-(4-chlorophenyl)sulfonyl-2-phenyl-oxazol-5-yl]sulfanyl-N-(2,4-dimethoxyphenyl)acetamide exhibited the highest activity against lines SNB75 and SF-539 of the CNS Cancer subpanel present in Glioblastoma and Gliosarcoma, respectively, exerting a cytostatic effect. 2-[4-(4-Bromophenyl)sulfonyl-2-phenyl-oxazol-5-yl]sulfanylacetamide has the highest antiproliferative activity against the HOP-92 (carcinoma) of the Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer subpanel, while N-(4-ethoxyphenyl)-2-[2-phenyl-4-(p-tolylsulfonyl)oxazol-5-yl]sulfanyl-acetamide exhibits cytotoxic activity against NCI-H226 (pleural mesothelioma) the Lung subpanel. The COMPARE analysis showed that the average graphs of the tested compounds have a weak or slightly moderate positive correlation with compounds with a known mechanism of antitumor activity, suggesting its specificity. These compounds demonstrated the anticancer activity against different individual cancer cell lines. This makes it possible to consider it a leading compound for further in-depth studies and synthesis of new 4-arylsulfonyl-1,3-derivatives oxazole with antitumor activity.