The current research work deals with the design, synthesis and characterization of a series of 6-substituted-4-hydroxy-1-(2-substituted thiazol-4-yl)quinolin-2(1H)-one derivatives and evaluation of their in vitro anticancer activity against MDA-MB (breast cancer) and A549 (Lung cancer) cell lines based upon MTT assay and In vitro antibacterial by the measurement of zone of inhibition and determining the Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC). All the synthesized compounds were characterized by UV, IR, ¹H NMR and ¹³C NMR spectral data.

Molecular docking studies of the title compounds were carried out using Molegro Virtual Docker (MVD-2013, 6.0) software. The synthesized compounds exhibited well conserved hydrogen bonds with one or more amino acid residues in the active pocket of EGFRK tyrosine kinase domain (PDB ID: 1m17) for anticancer docking study and S. aureus DNA gyrase domain complexed with a ciprofloxacin inhibitor (PDB ID: 2XCT) for antibacterial docking study. All synthesized derivatives were more potent against A549 (lung cancer) cell line as compared to MDA-MB (breast cancer) cell line, however all synthesized derivatives were found to be poor antibacterial agents when compared with standard norfloxacin.

Thus, the synthesized derivatives possessed a potential to bind with some of the residues of the active site of EGFRK tyrosine kinase and S. aureus DNA gyrase. They could be further developed into potential pharmacological agents.