Synthesis and biological evaluation of new pyridines containing imidazole moiety as antimicrobial and anticancer agents

The synthesis of a novel series of pyridine and bipyridine derivatives is described via one-pot multicomponent reaction of 5-acetylimidazole, malonitrile (or ethylcyanoacetate or diethylmalonate), substituted benzaldehyde (or terephthaldehyde), and ammonium acetate in good yields. The structures of all the new compounds were elucidated on the basis of elemental analysis and spectral data. The antimicrobial activities of the synthesized compounds were screened and the results showed that most of such compounds exhibit considerable activities. Furthermore, some of the newly synthesized compounds were screened for their anticancer activity against human breast cell line (MCF-7) and liver carcinoma cell line (HEPG2) in comparison to doxorubicin. Most of the tested compounds exhibited promising activity.