Ketene dithioacetal mediated synthesis of 1,3,4,5-tetrasubstituted pyrazole derivatives and their biological evaluation

Ketene dithioacetal mediated chemo- and regioselective synthesis of a series of novel 1,3,4,5-tetrasubstituted pyrazole derivatives (4a-l) integrated with a bioactive indole nucleus was achieved by reacting substituted 2-(1-methyl-1H-indole-3-carbonyl)-3,3-bis-(methylthio)-acrylonitrile (2) and substituted phenyl hydrazine hydrochloride (3) in the presence of a catalytic amount of anhydrous K₂CO₃ under reflux conditions. The structures were ascertained by ¹H NMR, NOESY, ¹³C NMR, FT-IR, and HRMS data. In vitro cytotoxicity evaluation of the synthesized compounds against MCF 7 (breast carcinoma) and normal Vero (monkey kidney) cell lines revealed that the compound 5-(5-Bromo-1-methyl-1H-indol-3-yl)-1-(4-cyano-phenyl)-3-methylsulfanyl-1H-pyrazole-4-carbonitrile (4k) showed significant cytotoxicity against MCF 7 (GI₅₀ = 15.6 µM) with low cytotoxicity against normal Vero cell line. Most of the synthesized compounds were also found to possess excellent anti-inflammatory and antioxidant (DPPH, NO, H₂O₂ and SOR) potential.