Histone deacetylase inhibitors with zinc binding groups often exhibit drawbacks like non-selectivity or toxic effects. Thus, there are continuous efforts to modify the currently available inhibitors or to discover new derivatives to overcome these problems. One approach is to synthesize new compounds with novel zinc binding groups. The present study describes the utilization of acyl thiourea functionality, known to possess the ability to complex with metals, to be a novel zinc binding group incorporated into the designed histone deacetylase inhibitors. N-adipoyl monoanilide thiourea (4) and N-pimeloyl monoanilide thiourea (5) have been synthesized and characterized successfully. They showed inhibition of growth of human colon adenoc

Primary amide derivatives as histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACIs) are very rare. This paper describes the synthesis of primary amide derivatives (compounds 6 and 7) that have the requirements to be histone deacetylase inhibitors of the zinc-binding type. Both of them exhibited good cytotoxicity against the tested cancer cell lines with much lower cytotoxicity against normal cell line.