Synthesis, characterization and anticancer studies of new steroidal oxadiazole, pyrrole and pyrazole derivatives

In the present study steroidal derivatives, 3β-[5′-mercapto-1′,3′,4′-oxadiazole-2-yl]methoxy cholest-5-ene 2, 3β-[2′,5′-dimethylpyrrole-1-yl]aminocarbonylmethoxycholest-5-ene 3 and 3β-[3′,5′-dimethyl pyrazole-1-yl]carbonylmethoxycholest-5-ene 4 have been synthesized from cholest-5-en-3β-O-acetyl hydrazide 1 using CS2/KOH, acetonyl acetone and acetyl acetone, respectively as reagents and are characterized by IR, 1H NMR,13C NMR, MS and elemental analysis. Compounds 2–4 were also evaluated for anticancer activity against human leukemia cell line (HL-60) by MTT assay and compound 4 displayed the promising behavior by showing better anticancer activity.