Design, facile synthesis and characterization of dichloro substituted chalcones and dihydropyrazole derivatives for their antifungal, antitubercular and antiproliferative activities

Infectious diseases caused by fungi and mycobacteria pose an important problem for humankind. Similarly, cancer is one of the leading causes of death globally. Therefore, there is an urgent need for the development of novel agents to combat the deadly problems of cancer, tuberculosis, and also fungal infections. Hence, in the present study, we designed, synthesized, and characterized 30 compounds including 15 chalcones (2-16) and 15 dihydropyrazoles (17-31) containing dichlorophenyl moiety and also screened these compounds for their antifungal, antitubercular, and antiproliferative activities. Among these compounds, the dihydropyrazoles showed excellent antifungal and antitubercular activities whereas the chalcones exhibited promising antiproliferative activity. Among the dihydropyrazoles, compound 31 containing 2-thienyl moiety showed promising antifungal activity (MIC 5.35 μM), whereas compounds 22 and 24 containing 2,4-difluorophenyl and 4-trifluoromethyl scaffolds revealed significant antitubercular activity with the MICs of 3.96 and 3.67 μM, respectively. Compound 16 containing 2-thienyl moiety in the chalcone series showed the highest anti-proliferative activity with an IC50 value of 17 ± 1 μM. The most active compounds identified through this study could be considered as starting points in the development of drugs with potential antifungal, antitubercular, and antiproliferative activities.