Design and synthesis of novel ureido and thioureido conjugated hydrazone derivatives with potent anticancer activity.

Background: Compounds possessing urea/thiourea moiety have a wide range of biological properties including anticancer activity. On the other hand, taking advantage of the low toxicity and structural diversity of hydrazone derivatives, they are presently being considered for designing chemical compounds with hydrazone moiety in the field of cancer treatment. With this in mind, a series of novel ureido/thioureido derivatives possessing a hydrazone moiety bearing nitro and chloro substituents (4a-4i) have been designed, synthesized, characterized and evaluated for their in vitro cytotoxic effect on HT-29 human colon carcinoma and HepG2 hepatocarcinoma cell lines.