Synthesis, pharmacological evaluation, and study of new 3-furan-1-thiophene-based chalcones as antibacterial and anticancer agents.

New 3-furan-1-thiophene-based chalcones were synthesized, characterized and pharmacologically evaluated as antibacterial and anticancer agents against two bacterial species; Gram-positive () and Gram-negative (). All tested final compounds were active against the two bacterial species; and . Especially compound AM4 showed large inhibition zone (27.13 and 23.30 mm), respectively. Using the DPPH assay, the new chalcones were evaluated for their free radical scavenging activity and found to reach up to 90 %, accomplished at a test concentration of 200 μg/mL. Furthermore, the chalcone derivatives were investigated against two breast cell lines; MCF-7 (cancerous) and MCF-10A (non-cancerous). Compound AM4 showed potent anticancer activity (IC = 19.354 μg/mL) in comparison to the other tested chalcone derivatives. study was achieved using the PyRx AutoDock Vina software (0.8) to study the interaction types between the new hits and the binding sites of targeted proteins; glucosamine-6-phosphate synthase and tubulin, the target for antibacterial and anticancer drugs, respectively. Based on the molecular docking results the tested chalcones bind to the active pocket of the respective proteins, which support the results. In conclusion, 3-furan-1-thiophene-based chalcones could serve as new hits in the discovery of novel anticancer and/or antibacterial drugs.