ABSTRACT:

Breast cancer is the second leading cause of death in women. Fulvestrant and tamoxifen (TAM) are the most extensively used medications to treat breast cancer. However, these medications are implicated in pharmacokinetics and resistance issues. This research aims to overcome these issues in selectivity and side effects. The study was conducted to designing potent anti-breast cancer agents using benzo[b]thiophene (BT) as a building block and then testing the synthesized compounds against breast cancer cell lines (MCF-7). Techniques such as melting point (m.p.), Infrared Spectroscopy (IR), and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) used to characterize these compounds (3a-d & 4a-d) and their intermidates. Benzothiophene (BT) scaffold was incorporated to whether thiazolidin-4-one (THZ) or azetidin-2-one (AZT) ring system using the cyclocondensation reaction between the schiff base and ethyl thioglycolate or acetyl chloride to afford the target compounds (3a-d & 4a-d) in a good yield. All the newly synthesized compounds were screened for their in vitro anti-breast cancer activity using the MCF-7 cell line. Compounds (3a) and (3d) revealed promising anti-breast cancer activity with IC50 equal 10.32µM and 11.35µM, respectively. Whereas the reference TAM showed IC50 at about 18.02µM. This work generated fresh insight that compounds (3a) and (3d) could be considered as a lead candidate to fight breast cancer.