Abstract
A new series of urea and thiourea derivatives containing benzimidazole group as potential anticancer agents have been designed and synthesized. The structures of the synthesized compounds were characterized and confirmed by spectroscopic techniques such as
H NMR,
C NMR, and mass spectrometry.
anticancer assay against two breast cancer (BC) cell lines, MDA-MB-231
and MCF-7
, revealed that the cytotoxicity of 1-(2-(1
-benzo[
]imidazol-2-ylamino)ethyl)-3-
-tolylthiourea (
) and 4-(1
-benzo[
]imidazol-2-yl)-
-(3-chlorophenyl)piperazine-1-carboxamide (
) were higher in MCF-7 with IC
values of 25.8 and 48.3 µM, respectively, as compared with MDA-MB-231 cells. Furthermore,
and
were assessed for their apoptotic potential using 4′,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole, acridine orange/ethidium bromide staining, and Caspase-3/7. After incubation with MCF-7, the compounds
and
induced apoptosis through caspase-3/7 activation. In conclusion, the compounds
and
are potential candidates for inducing apoptosis in different genotypic BC cell lines.