1418
J. ANTERBEDY ET AL.
agents.[19] Recently, various 3,5-disubstituted-1,2,4-oxadiazoles were reported as poten-
tial anti-cancer agents and apoptosis against various cancer cell lines.[20–24] Furthermore
1,2,4-oxadiazole derivatives are possess hydrolytic, metabolic stability, improved phar-
macokinetic properties[25] and also defined as bioisosters of amides and esters.[26] 1,2,3-
Triazoles have been established as significant molecules in medicinal chemistry in last
decades. 1,2,3-Triazole moiety does not occur in nature although, the basic 1,4-disubsti-
tuted-1,2,3-triazole ring itself is a potential pharmacophore that showed interesting bio-
logical activities such as anti-bacterial,[27] anti-malarial,[28] anti-fungal,[29] anti-viral,[30]
anti-tubercular[31] and anti-cancer activities.[32] 1,2,3-Triazoles can actively involve in
dipole-dipole and p-stacking interactions and hydrogen bonding with enhanced binding
affinity to target proteins,[33–35] these are considered as peptide and amide bond iso-
steres.[36,37] Sharpless et al. reported[38] the Cu (I) catalyzed 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition
between terminal alkynes and alkyl azides leads regioselectively 1,4-disubstituted-1,2,3-
triazoles under Click reaction condition. Furthermore, one-pot 1,3-cycloaddition was
earlier reported[39,40] Feldmanin et al. were reported situ azide generated cycloadd-
ition,[41] Pokhodylo et al. were reported one-pot 1,2,3-triazol and 1,3,4/1,2,4-oxadiazole
hybrids.[42] Hybrid molecules with two or more diverse heterocyclic pharmacophores
having significant results in drug discovery, due to reduce side effects and overcome the
drug resistance may also precise action mechanisms.[43,44] Notably heterocyclic hybrids
were privileged scaffolds exhibiting several biological activities such as anti-fungal, anti-
tuberculosis, anti-malarial, anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer and anti-bacterial activ-
ity.[45,46] Recently, various oxygen and nitrogen-containing heterocyclic pharmacophores
with 1,2,3-triazole linker were found in the development of novel anti-cancer drugs.[47]
These fascinating biological properties enhance our interest toward the synthesis of oxa-
diazole, 1,2,3-triazole derivatives and their biological activity.
Results and discussion
Novel benzofuran-1,2,4-oxadiazole-1,2,3-triazole hybrids (6a–n) were synthesized from
2H-chromene-3-carbonitriles (1a–b). 2H-chromene-3-carbonitriles (1a–b) were synthe-
sized from the previous reported procedure.[48] Initially, 5-(chloromethyl)-3-(2-methyl-
benzofuran-3-yl)-1,2,4-oxadiazoles (4a–b) were prepared from 2H-chromene-3-
carbonitriles (1a-b) by using my earlier reported method.[49] Catalyst free sodium azide
mediated ring retrenchment in pyran ring of compounds 1(a–b) into furan ring in
DMSO at 160 ꢀC witch gave 2-methylbenzofuran-3-carbonitriles (2a–b), were respect-
ively. Furthermore, hydroxylamine hydrochloride reacted with compounds 2(a–b) using
triethylamine in ethanol under reflux gave N-hydroxy-2-methylbenzofuran-3-carboximi-
damides (3a–b) individually. Moreover, compounds 3(a–b) was acetylation followed by
condensation with chloroacetyl chloride in THF at reflux, provided 5-(chloromethyl)-3-
(2-methylbenzofuran-3-yl)-1,2,4-oxadiazoles (4a–b) respectively (Scheme 1).
Compounds 4(a–b) were treated with sodium azide provided, in situ 5-(azido-
methyl)-3-(2-methylbenzofuran-3-yl)-1,2,4-oxadiazoles subsequently, 1,3-dipolar cyclo-
addition with substituted-1-(prop-2-yn-1-yloxy)benzenes (5a–g) using sodium
ascorbate and CuSO4.5H2O in DMF:H2O (7:3) under Click reaction gave corresponding