Abstract
2-(4,5-Dihydro-4-oxothiazol-2-yl) acetonitrile (1) was reacted with acetophenone (2) to give 2-(4,5-dihydro-4-oxothiazol-2-yl)-3-phenylbut-2-enenitrile (3). The reactivity of product 3 towards aromatic aldehydes 4a-d, cyanomethylene reagents 6a, b, aryl diazonium salts 10a-d, phenylisothiocyanate and elemental sulfur was studied. Some of the newly synthesized compounds were used to synthesize fused derivatives. The anti-tumor evaluation of selected compounds against three cancer cells namely breast adenocarcinoma (MCF-7), non-small cell lung cancer (NCI-H460) and CNS cancer (SF-268) showed that some of them have a high inhibitory effect and compound 19 was found to be more active than the standard on NCI-H460 and SF-268.