Discovery of New S‐Glycosides and N‐Glycosides of Pyridine‐biphenyl System with Antiviral Activity and Induction of Apoptosis in MCF7 Cells

Glycosylation of small molecule‐based drugs can dramatically improve the biological activities of the parent scaffold. In the current study, S‐glycosides and N‐glycosides of polyfunctionalized pyridine‐biphenyl system tethered with benzotriazole moiety were designed and synthesized. S‐Glycosides of pyridine‐2‐thione derivatives 5a–h and N‐glycosides of pyridine‐2‐one derivatives 9a,b were synthesized by a facile, convenient, and high‐yielding procedure. The epimers glucose and galactose, acetylated or deacetylated, were used to form the glycone part. The structures of these compounds were confirmed by microanalysis and spectroscopic data (IR, 1H–NMR, and 13C‐NMR). The anticancer activities of the target compounds, in comparison with standard cisplatin, were assessed by MTT assay against MCF7 cell line. Compounds 4f, 4g, 5f, and 5h exhibited the highest cytotoxic effect on MCF7. The anticancer effect of these four compounds induced the apoptosis as evident by the up‐regulated expression of the apoptotic genes Bax and p53 and down‐regulated expression of the anti‐apoptotic gene BCl2. S‐Glycoside derivatives are more active than N‐glycosides. Moreover, the nontoxic doses of the tested compounds were evaluated in MA104, FRHK4, BGM, Hep2, and Vero cells. Compounds 4a–d and 5a–d were also evaluated for their antiviral effect against HSV‐1, HAV, and rotavirus Wa strain. The compounds' results showed less, moderated, and high antiviral activities. The docking study for these compounds with MDM2 revealed that deacetylated galactose is important for binding with the receptor as it facilitates the formation of hydrogen bond in the receptor. Rapid overlay of chemical structures analysis was employed to understand the compounds' similarity on the basis of their shape structure using the Tanimoto scores.