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In Vitro and In Silico Studies on 4-Nitroacetophenone Thiosemicarbazone Potential Cytotoxicity Against A549 Cell Lines

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Abstract

Lung malignancy is a major worldwide issue that occurs due to the dysregulation of various growth factors. Lung cancer has no apparent signs in the early stages, which makes it harder to catch it in time and leads to a higher fatality rate. So, the goal of this work was to create and analyze a novel chemical molecule called 4-nitro acetophenone thiosemicarbazone (4-NAPTSc) against the lung cancer cell line A549 and human non-tumorigenic lung epithelial cell line BAES-2B. The ligand was synthesized by refluxing the reaction mixture of 4-nitro acetophenone and thiosemicarbazide and was further characterized by UV, FTIR, and 1H and 13C NMR and Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) study. Cytotoxicity assay/MTT (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl))2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide) was used to evaluate the cytotoxicity of the compound. Epidermal growth factor receptors (EGFR), polo-like kinase-1 (PLK1), and vascular endothelial growth factor receptors (VEGFR) were chosen as the target proteins for molecular docking to find potential ligand binding sites and inhibit their function. A novel yellow-colored crystalline solid has been synthesized. 4-NAPTSc had an IC50 of 2.93 μg/mL against the A549 lung cancer cells. When the dosage is increased from 5 to 15 μg/mL along with time, the cell viability falls. Docking results showed that the compound binds with the targeted proteins’ amino acid residues, and the likeness profile of the compound is also favorable. This study reveals that the compound has the potential for further investigation and can be used in multitargeted cancer therapies.

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Author notes

  1. Neha Verma and Kanu Priya contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Life Sciences, School of Basic Sciences and Research, Sharda University, Knowledge park-III, Greater Noida, U.P., 201310, India

    Neha Verma, Mohini Singh, Shilpa Kumari & Kanu Priya

  2. School of Biotechnology, Gautam Buddha University, Greater Noida, U.P., 201312, India

    Piyush Bhati & Mohd. Tashfeen Ashraf

  3. Department of Chemistry, School of Basic Sciences and Research, Sharda University, Knowledge park-III, Greater Noida, U.P., 201310, India

    Sonia Khanna

  4. Department of Life Sciences, Guru Nanak College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India

    Nidhi Chatterjee & Vishal K Deshwal

  5. School of Applied and Life Sciences, Uttaranchal University, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India

    Sarvesh Rustagi

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Contributions

NV is PhD scholar in life sciences, and she wrote this research article under the supervision of Dr. KanuPriya. PB and SK helped in conducting the experiments and collection of data. Dr. MS, Dr. SK, Dr. NC, Dr. VD, Dr. SR, and MTA modified and prepared it for publication.

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Correspondence to Kanu Priya.

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Verma, N., Singh, M., Bhati, P. et al. In Vitro and In Silico Studies on 4-Nitroacetophenone Thiosemicarbazone Potential Cytotoxicity Against A549 Cell Lines. Appl Biochem Biotechnol (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12010-023-04814-1

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