Design, synthesis, and molecular docking studies of thiazolidinediones as PPAR-γ agonists and thymidylate synthase inhibitors

New thiazolidine-2,4-dione hybrids were designed and synthesized as potential peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR)-gamma agonists and thymidylate synthase inhibitors. All the synthesized compounds follow Lipinski's and Veber's rules and possess the desired pharmacokinetics properties. The PPAR-gamma transactivation results displayed that compounds 12 (78.9%) and 11 (73.4%) were the most active compounds and they increased PPAR-gamma gene expression by 2.2- and 2.4-fold, respectively. Compounds 12, 11, and 8 showed promising cytotoxicity, with IC50 values ranging from 1.4 to 4.5 mu M against MCF-7 cells and from 1.8 to 8.4 mu M against HCT-116 cells. Compounds 11 and 12 also inhibited thymidylate synthase with IC50 values of 5.1 and 3.2 mu M, respectively, confirming their mode of action as thymidylate synthase inhibitors. Finally, molecular docking studies supported the in vitro biological activity results.