Synthesis, Characterization and Evaluation of Anticancer Activity of Some Tetrazole Derivatives

Different tetrazole derivatives containing isoxazole has been synthesized. 5-phenyl tetrazoles (1) was cyclized using sodium azide and ammonium chloride and benzonitrile. The 5-phenyl tetrazoles on treatment with acetic anhydride forms 5-phenyl 1-acetyl Tetrazole (2) which on reaction with different aromatic aldehydes forms chalcones (3ah).The chalcones further undergo cyclisation with hydroxylamine hydrochloride in presence of KOH to form 5-phenyl-1-(5-substituted phenyl isoxazol-3-yl)-1H-tetrazole (4a-h).The chemical structures were confirmed by means of FT-IR, H-NMR and elemental analysis. Among the synthesized tetrazole derivatives, eight compounds have been selected and evaluated for their anticancer activity at the National Cancer Institute for testing against a panel of approximately 60 different human tumor cell lines derived from nine neoplastic cancer types. Relations between structure and activity are discussed, the most efficient anticancer compound (4b) was found to be active with selective influence on ovarian cancer cell lines, especially on SK-OV-3 with a growth % of 34.94.