N-acylhydrazones containing thiophene nucleus: a new anticancer class

In this study, we present a series of N-acylhydrazones containing thiophene nuclei as a new anticancer class. Fifty-seven compounds in this series were evaluated for their activity against four human cancer cell lines. Cytotoxicity (IC50) ranged from 0.82 to 12.90 μM. The compound (E)-N′-(2-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzylidene)thiophene-2-carbohydrazide displayed good cytotoxic activity in all cell lines (IC50 = 0.82–5.36 μM) and yielded the best result in this series; therefore, it is an important lead compound in this new class.