Synthesis of N-(phenylcarbamothioyl)-benzamide derivatives and their cytotoxic activity against MCF-7 cells

Cancer is one of the leading causes of death both in developing countries and across the globe. In Indonesia, cancer ranks as the fifth primary cause of death following heart disease, stroke, respiratory tract and diarrhea. Therefore, studies on thiourea derivative compounds as anticancer agents have been profoundly conducted but still require further continuous development. In the present study, we aimed to synthesize new anticancer compounds of N-(phenylcarbamothioyl)-benzamide derivatives, namely N-(phenylcarbamothioyl)-4-bromobenzamide and N-(phenylcarbamothioyl)-4-fluorobenzamide compounds and assess their activities against MCF-7 breast cancer cells. The initial step was to predict the drug-receptor activity through docking between the tested compounds using epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) (PDB code: 1M17). The compounds were futher synthesized from the reactions between benzoyl chloride derivatives and N-phenylthiourea. The structures of the new compounds were identified using FTIR, ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR and mass spectra. The cytotoxic activities (IC₅₀) to breast cancer cells of MCF-7 N-(phenylcarbamothioyl)-4-bromobenzamide compound and N-(phenylcarbamothioyl)-4-fluorobenzamide were 0.27 mM and 0.31 mM, respectively. These two new compounds had better cytotoxic activities than those of the current hydroxyurea-based anticancer drugs (the reference compound) with an IC₅₀ value of 9.76 mM. Furthermore, these two new compounds were not toxic to Vero normal cells. Therefore, they possessed tremendous potentials as the candidates for new drugs against breast cancer.