Synthesis and biological evaluation of novel oxadiazole derivatives: a new class of thymidine phosphorylase inhibitors as potential anti-tumor agents.

Based on the fact that the thymidine phosphorylase inhibitors are considered potential anti-tumor agents, a range of novel oxadiazole derivatives 3a-3u was designed and synthesized by a simple and facile synthetic route. The biological assay revealed that majority of compounds displayed modest inhibitory activity against thymidine phosphorylase at low micromolar concentrations (IC50 173.23±3.04 to 14.40±2.45μM). In the current study the most active compounds were 3h and 3q with IC50 values 14.40±2.45 and 17.60±1.07μM, respectively. Molecular docking studies were performed on the most active compounds (3h, 3k, 3o-3q) to show their binding mode.