Synthesis, in silico studies and cytotoxicity evaluation of novel 1,3,4-oxadiazole derivatives designed as potential mPGES-1 inhibitors

A series of new 1,3,4-oxadizole derivatives containing thioether group, has been synthesized to investigate their mPGES-1 inhibitory activities. The synthesized compounds were also evaluated for their anticancer and COX-1/2 inhibitory activities. All compounds were checked for their purity using TLC and HPLC analyses. The melting points, elemental analysis, FT-IR, ¹H-/¹³C-NMR and LR-MS data were utilized for structural characterization. The most potent derivative was 2-[5-{[2-methyl-5-(propan-2-yl)phenoxy]methyl}-1,3,4-oxadiazol-2-yl)sulphanyl]-1(phenyl)ethan-1-one 3a, which showed inhibitory activity against mPGES-1 with an IC₅₀ of 4.95 μM. Docking studies with mPGES-1 and COX-1/2 enzymes revealed their affinity and potential binding mechanism for the tested compounds.