Synthesis and biological evaluation of heterocyclic 1,2,4-triazole scaffolds as promising pharmacological agents

Background Triazole is an important heterocyclic moiety that occupies a unique position in heterocyclic chemistry, due to its large number of biological activities. It exists in two isomeric forms i.e. 1,2,4-triazole and 1,2,3-triazole and is used as core molecule for the design and synthesis of many medicinal compounds. 1,2,4-Triazole possess broad spectrum of therapeutically interesting drug candidates such as analgesic, antiseptic, antimicrobial, antioxidant, anti- urease , anti-inflammatory, diuretics, anticancer, anticonvulsant, antidiabetic and antimigraine agents. Methods The structures of all synthesized compounds were characterized by physicochemical properties and spectral means (IR and NMR). The synthesized compounds were evaluated for their in vitro antimicrobial activity against Gram-positive ( B. subtilis ), Gram-negative ( P. aeruginosa and E. coli ) bacterial and fungal ( C. albicans and A. niger ) strains by tube dilution method using ciprofloxacin, amoxicillin and fluconazole as standards. In-vitro antioxidant and anti- urease screening was done by DPPH assay and indophenol method, respectively. The in-vitro anticancer evaluation was carried out against MCF-7 and HCT116 cancer cell lines using 5-FU as standards. Results, discussion and conclusion The biological screening results reveal that the compounds T 5 (MIC BS , EC = 24.7 µM, MIC PA , CA = 12.3 µM) and T 17 (MIC AN = 27.1 µM) exhibited potent antimicrobial activity as comparable to standards ciprofloxacin, amoxicillin (MIC Cipro = 18.1 µM, MIC Amo = 17.1 µM) and fluconazole (MIC Flu = 20.4 µM), respectively. The antioxidant evaluation showed that compounds T 2 (IC 50 = 34.83 µg/ml) and T 3 (IC 50 = 34.38 µg/ml) showed significant antioxidant activity and comparable to ascorbic acid (IC 50 = 35.44 µg/ml). Compounds T 3 (IC 50 = 54.01 µg/ml) was the most potent urease inhibitor amongst the synthesized compounds and compared to standard thiourea (IC 50 = 54.25 µg/ml). The most potent anticancer activity was shown by compounds T 2 (IC 50 = 3.84 μM) and T 7 (IC 50 = 3.25 μM) against HCT116 cell lines as compared to standard 5-FU (IC 50 = 25.36 μM).