Synthesis, anticancer evaluation, and docking studies of some novel azo chromene derivatives

We have described a simple, convenient, and high‐yielding one‐pot synthesis of novel azo chromene derivatives via a three‐component reaction of various azo aldehydes with dimedone and malononitrile using 10 mol% of 1,8‐diazabicyclo[5.4.0]undec‐7‐ene (DBU) as catalyst and ethanol as solvent at reflux condition. All the synthesized compounds have been characterized using Fourier‐transform infrared spectroscopy (FT‐IR), 1 H NMR, 13 C NMR, and HR‐MS spectra and molecular docking was performed to explore new inhibitors of human placental aromatase cytochrome P450 and cyclooxygenase‐2 enzymes. Of all the compounds docked, compound (E)‐2‐amino‐4‐(4,4‐dimethyl‐2,6‐dioxocyclohexyl)‐6‐((3‐methoxyphenyl)diazenyl‐4 H ‐chromene‐3‐carbonitrile ( 4o ) showed good binding affinity with the active site of human placental aromatase cytochrome P450 enzyme (PDB: 3EQM) with inhibition constant (Ki) 1.66 nM and compound 4o also showed good binding affinity with the active site of cyclooxygenase‐2 enzyme (PDB: 6COX) with inhibition constant (Ki) 367.17 pM. In vitro anti‐cancer activity studies against MCF‐7 cells were also performed for compounds 4o , anastrozole and celecoxib. Compound 4o showed an effective cytotoxicity at 19.8 μg/ml compared to anastrozole and celecoxib (24.7 and 26.2 μg/ml).