# Discovery of New Apoptosis-Inducing Agents for Breast Cancer Based on Ethyl 2-Amino-4,5,6,7-Tetra Hydrobenzo[b]Thiophene-3-Carboxylate: Synthesis, In Vitro, and In Vivo Activity Evaluation

## TL;DR

Researchers developed new compounds that induce apoptosis in breast cancer cells, with one showing significant tumor reduction in animal studies.

## Contribution

A novel class of apoptosis-inducing agents was synthesized and evaluated for anticancer activity in vitro and in vivo.

## Key findings

- Compound 4 significantly reduced MCF-7 cell viability by 26.86% through apoptosis induction.
- Compound 4 decreased solid tumor mass by 26.6% in an in vivo study.
- Twelve compounds showed antiproliferative activity with IC50 values between 23.2 and 95.9 µM.

## Abstract

A multicomponent synthesis was empolyed for the synthesis of ethyl 2-amino-4,5,6,7-tetrahydrobenzo[b]thiophene-3-carboxylate 1. An interesting cyclization was obtained when the amino-ester 1 reacted with ethyl isothiocyanate to give the benzo[4,5]thieno[2,3-d][1,3]thiazin-4-one 3. Acylation of the amino-ester 1 with chloroacetyl chloride in DCM and Et3N afforded the acylated ester 4. The amino-ester 1 was cyclized to benzo[4,5]thieno[2,3-d]pyrimidin-4(3H)-one 8, which was reacted with some alkylating agents leading to alkylation at nitrogen 9–13. Hydrazide 14 was utilized as a synthon for the synthesis of the derivatives 15–19. Chloro-thieno[2,3-d]pyrimidine 20 was synthesized and reacted with the hydrazine hydrate to afford the hydrazino derivative 21, which was used as a scaffold for getting the derivatives 22–28. Nucleophilic substitution reactions were used for getting the compounds 29–35 from chloro-thieno[2,3-d]pyrimidine 20. In the way of anticancer therapeutics development, the requisite compounds were assessed for their cytotoxicity in vitro against MCF-7 and HepG-2 cancer cell lines. Twelve compounds showed an interesting antiproliferative potential with IC50 from 23.2 to 95.9 µM. The flow cytometric analysis results showed that hit 4 induces the apoptosis in MCF-7 cells with a significant 26.86% reduction in cell viability. The in vivo study revealed a significant decrease in the solid tumor mass (26.6%) upon treatment with compound 4. Moreover, in silico study as an agonist for inhibitors of JAK2 and prediction study determined their binding energies and predicted their physicochemical properties and drug-likeness scores.