Exploring novel fluorine rich fuberidazole derivatives as hypoxic cancer inhibitors: design, synthesis, pharmacokinetics, molecular docking and DFT evaluations

Sixteen fuberidazole derivatives as potential new anticancer bioreductive prodrugs are prepared and characterized. The in vitro anticancer potential is examined to explore their cytotoxic properties employing apoptosis, DNA damage, and proliferation tests on chosen hypoxic cancer cells. Overall, eight substances (Compound 5a, 5c, 5d, 5e, 5g, 5h, 5i, and 5m) showed good cytotoxic properties. The potential of compounds is also examined through in silico studies (against human serum albumin), including chem-informatics to understand the structure-activity relationship (SAR), pharmacochemical strength, and the mode of interactions responsible for their action. The DFT calculations revealed that only 5b compound showed the lowest {Delta}ET (2.29 eV) while 5i showed relatively highest {beta}tot (69.89 x 10-31 esu), highest ave (3.18 x 10-23 esu), and dipole moment (6.49 Debye). This study presents a novel class of fuberidazole derivatives with selectivity toward hypoxic cancer cells.