Abstract
Aim: Design and synthesis of pyrazole-based chemotherapeutic agents. Materials & methods: A series of novel diphenyl pyrazole-chalcone derivatives were synthesized and assessed for their cytotoxic activities against 14 cancer cell lines and their antimicrobial activities against MRSA and Escherichia coli along with their safety using HSF normal cell line. Results & conclusion: Majority of the compounds showed moderate-to-significant anticancer activity with selective high percentage inhibition (>80%) against HNO-97 while being nontoxic toward normal cells. Compounds 6b and 6d were the most potent congeners with IC(50) of 10 and 10.56 μM respectively. The synthesized compounds exhibited moderate to potent antimicrobial activities. Interestingly, compound 6d exhibited a minimum inhibitory concentration of 15.7 μg/ml against MRSA; and a minimum inhibitory concentration of 7.8 μg/ml versus E. coli.