Caolin Wang

Design, synthesis, and docking studies of quinazoline analogues bearing aryl semicarbazone scaffolds as potent EGFR inhibitors

Two series of quinazoline derivatives bearing aryl semicarbazone scaffolds (9a-o and 10a-o) were designed, synthesized and evaluated for the IC50 values against four cancer cell lines (A549, HepG2, MCF-7 and PC-3). The selected compound 9o was further evaluated for the inhibitory activity against EGFR kinases. Four of the compounds showed excellent cytotoxicity activity and selectivity with the IC50 values in single-digit μM to nanomole range. Two of them are equal to more active than positive control afatinib against one or more cell lines. The most promising compound 9o showed the best activity against A549, HepG2, MCF-7 and PC-3 cancer cell lines and EGFR kinase, with the IC50 values of 1.32±0.38μM, 0.07±0.01μM, 0.91±0.29μM and 4.89±0.69μM, which were equal to more active than afatinib (1.40±0.83μM, 1.33±1.28μM, 2.63±1.06μM and 3.96±0.59μM), respectively. Activity of the most promising compound 9o (IC50 56nM) against EGFR kinase was slightly lower to the positive compound afatinib (IC50 1.6nM) but more active than reference staurosporine (IC50 238nM). The result of flow cytometry, with the dose of compound 9o increasing, which indicated the compound 9o could induce remarkable apoptosis of A549 and cells in a dose dependent manner. Structure-activity relationships (SARs) and docking studies indicated that replacement of the cinnamamide group by aryl semicarbazone scaffolds slightly decreased the anti-tumor activity. The results suggested that hydroxy substitution at C-4 had a significant impact on the activity and replacement of the tetrahydrofuran group by methyl moiety was not beneficial for the activity.

Design, synthesis and antitumor activity of Novel Sorafenib derivatives bearing pyrazole scaffold

Four series of Sorafenib derivatives bearing pyrazole scaffold (8a-m, 9a-c, 10a-e and 11a) were synthesized and characterized by NMR and MS. All of the target compounds were evaluated for the cytotoxicity against A549, HepG2, MCF-7, and PC-3 cancer cell lines and some selected compounds were further evaluated for the activity against VEGFR-2/KDR, BRAF, CRAF, c-Met, EGFR and Flt-3 kinases. Compounds 8b and 8i were more active than that of compounds 8h, 9a, especially the IC50 value of compounds 8b on VEGFR-2 kinase was 0.56μM. And compound 8b exhibited moderate to good activity toward c-Met and showed moderate to no activity against CRAF, c-Met, EGFR, Flt-3 kinases. Eleven of the target compounds exhibited moderate to good antitumor activities. The most promising compound 8b showed strong antitumor activities against A549, HepG2 and MCF-7 cell lines with IC50 values of 2.84±0.78μM, 1.85±0.03μM and 1.96±0.28μM, which were equivalent to Sorafenib (2.92±0.68μM, 3.44±0.50μM and 3.18±0.18μM). Structure-activity relationships (SARs) and docking studies indicated that the pyrazole scaffolds exerted key effect on antitumor activities of target compounds. Substitutions of aryl group at C-3 positions had a significant impact on the antitumor activities, and 3-Br substitution produced the best potency.

Synthesis, activity and docking studies of phenylpyrimidine–carboxamide Sorafenib derivatives

Two series of Sorafenib derivatives bearing phenylpyrimidine-carboxamide moiety (16a-g and 17a-p) were designed, synthesized and evaluated for the IC50 values against three cancer cell lines (A549, MCF-7 and PC-3). Two selected compounds (17f and 17n) were further evaluated for the activity against VEGFR2/KDR kinase. More than half of the synthesized compounds showed moderate to excellent activity against three cancer cell lines. Compound 17f showed equal activity to Sorafenib against MCF-7 cell line, with the IC50 values of 6.35±0.43μM. Meanwhile, compound 17n revealed more active than Sorafenib against A549 cell line, with the IC50 values of 3.39±0.37μM. Structure-activity relationships (SARs) and docking studies indicated that the second series (17a-p) showed more active than the first series (16a-g). Whats more, the introduction of fluoro atom to the phenoxy part played no significant impact on activity. In addition, the presence of electron-donating on aryl group was benefit for the activity.

Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of Novel 4-Morpholino-7,8-dihydro-5H-thiopyrano[4,3-d]pyrimidine Derivatives Bearing Phenylpyridine/ Phenylpyrimidine-Carboxamides

Four series of novel 4-morpholino-7,8-dihydro-5H-thiopyrano[4,3-d]pyrimidine derivatives 11a–j, 12a–j, 13a–g and 14a–g bearing phenylpyridine/phenylpyrimidine- carboxamide scaffolds were designed, synthesized and their IC50 values against three cancer cell lines (A549, PC-3 and MCF-7) were evaluated. Eleven of the compounds showed moderate cytotoxicity activity against the cancer cell lines. Structure-activity relationships (SARs) and pharmacological results indicated that the introduction of phenylpyridine-carboxamide scaffold was beneficial for the activity. What’s more, the oxidation of the sulfur atom in thiopyran and various types of substituents on the aryl group have different impacts on different series of compounds. Furthermore, the positions of aryl group substituents have a slight impact on the activity of the phenylpyridine-carboxamide series compounds.

Design, synthesis, antiproliferative activity and docking studies of quinazoline derivatives bearing oxazole or imidazole as potential EGFR inhibitors

Six series of quinazoline derivatives bearing oxazole or imidazole (8a–f, 9a–f, 10a–d, 11a–f, 12a–d and 13a–i) were designed, synthesized and their IC50 values evaluated against three cancer cell lines (A549, MCF-7 and PC-3). Most of the thirty-five target compounds showed excellent antiproliferative activity against one or several cancer cell lines. Compound 12a showed the best activity against A549, MCF-7 and PC-3 cancer cell lines, with IC50 values of 1.90 ± 0.13 μM, 2.23 ± 0.28 μM and 2.03 ± 0.14 μM, respectively. Four selected compounds (8a, 9d, 10a and 12a) were further evaluated for the inhibitory activity against EGFR kinase. AnnexinV-FITC, propidium iodide (PI) double staining and acridine orange single staining results indicated that compound 12a could induce apoptosis of human lung cancer A549 cells.

Design, Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of Novel Phenylsulfonylurea Derivatives as PI3K/mTOR Dual Inhibitors

Five series of novel phenylsulfonylurea derivatives, 19a–d, 20a–d, 21a–d, 22a–d and 23a–d, bearing 4-phenylaminoquinoline scaffold were designed, synthesized and their IC50 values against four cancer cell lines (HepG-2, A549, PC-3 and MCF-7) were evaluated. Most compounds showed moderate cytotoxicity activity against the cancer cell lines. Structure–activity relationships (SARs) and pharmacological results indicated that introduction of 4-aminoquinoline scaffold and phenylsulfonylurea scaffold were beneficial for anti-tumor activity. Moreover, para-methoxyl substitution of 4-anilino moiety and para-halogen substitution of phenylsulfonylurea have different impacts on different series of compounds. Furthermore, the micromolecule group substitution in the 6-position of the quinoline ring have a slight impact on the cellular activity of the target compounds.

Discovery of novel pyrrolopyrimidine/pyrazolopyrimidine derivatives bearing 1,2,3-triazole moiety as c-Met kinase inhibitors

Six series of pyrrolo[2,3‐d]pyrimidine and pyrazolo[3,4‐d]pyrimidine derivatives bearing 1,2,3‐triazole moiety were designed and synthesized, and some bio‐evaluation was also carried out. As a result, four points can be summarized: Firstly, some of compounds exhibited excellent cytotoxicity activity and selectivity with the IC50 values in single‐digit μm level. In particular, the most promising compound 16d showed equal activity to lead compound foretinib against A549, HepG2, and MCF‐7 cell lines, with the IC50 values of 4.79 ± 0.82, 2.03 ± 0.39, and 2.90 ± 0.43 μm, respectively. Secondly, the SARs and docking studies indicated that the in vitro antitumor activity of pyrrolo[2,3‐d]pyrimidine derivatives bearing 1,2,3‐triazole moiety was superior to the pyrazolo[3,4‐d]pyrimidine derivatives bearing 1,2,3‐triazole moiety. Thirdly, three selected compounds (16d, 18d, and 20d) were further evaluated for inhibitory activity against the c‐Met kinase, and the 16d could inhibit the c‐Met kinase selectively by experiments of enzyme‐based selectivity. What is more, 16d could induce apoptosis of HepG2 cells and inhibitor the cell cycle of HepG2 on G2/M phase by acridine orange staining and cell cycle experiments, respectively.

Synthesis and bioevaluation and doking study of 1 H -pyrrolo[2,3- b ]pyridine derivatives bearing aromatic hydrazone moiety as c-et inhibitors

Two series of aromatic hydrazone derivatives bearing 1H-pyrrolo[2,3-b]pyridine moiety (7a-r, 8a-i, 12a-b, 13a-c, 16a-d and 17a-e) were designed, synthesized and evaluated for the IC50 values against four cancer cell lines (A549, HepG2, MCF-7and PC-3). Two selected compounds (7c and 17e) were further evaluated for the activity against c-Met, Flt-3, VEGFR-2 and EGFR kinases. The data indicated that targets compounds were selective for c-Met kinase. And the most promising compound 7c was further studied in terms of dose-dependent, time-dependent and cell apoptosis. Most of the compounds showed excellent cytotoxicity activity, especially the most promising compound 7c with the IC50 values of 0.82 ± 0.08 μM, 1.00 ± 0.11 μM, 0.93 ± 0.28 μM and 0.92 ± 0.17 μM against A549, HepG2, MCF-7 and PC-3 cell lines and 0.506 μM against c-Met kinase. Structure-activity relationships (SARs) and docking studies indicated that the activities of the phenyl hydrazone derivatives (7a-r and 8a-i) were superior to that of the heterocyclic hydrazone series (12a-b, 13a-c, 16a-d and 17a-e). Whats more, the further studies indicated that the target compounds can induce apoptosis of A549 cells and arrest efficiently the cell cycle progression in G2/M phase of A549 cells.

Discovery of novel 2-substituted-4-phenoxypyridine derivatives as potential antitumor agents

A series of 2-substituted-4-phenoxypyridine derivatives were designed, synthesized, and evaluated for their antiproliferative activity against 4 cancer cell lines (A549, HT-29, H460, and U87MG) in vitro. Most compounds showed moderate to excellent potency. Nine tyrosine kinases (c-Met, Flt-3, ALK, VEGFR-2, VEGFR-3, PDGFR-α, PDGFR-β, c-Kit, and EGFR) were used to evaluate the inhibitory activities with the most promising analogue 39, which showed the Flt-3/c-Met IC50 values of 2.18/2.61 nM. Structure-activity relationship studies indicated that n-Pr served as R1 group showed a higher preference, and stronger mono-EWGs on the phenyl ring (such as R2 = 4-F) was benefited to the potency.

Synthesis of N-(3-chloro-4-fluorophenyl)-6-nitro-7-((tetrahydrofuran-3-yl) oxy) quinazolin-4-amine

Afatinib (1) exhibited potential biological activities in medicine. There are shortcomings in the synthesis route of afatinib in the literature, the product yield is low and the post-processing is complicated. Therefore, in this paper, the two-step synthetic route of afatinib was optimized. The two-step reaction is discussed the reaction reagent and the feed ratio on the reaction yield were investigated. The optimized reaction conditions are as follows: n (compounds 4): n (4-chloro-7-fluoro-6-nitro-quinazolineand) = 1:1.2; n (compounds 5): n ((S)-tetrahydrofuran-3-ol): n (60 percent NaH) = 1:2.3:3. The improved process has the advantages of mild reaction conditions, simple operation and low cost. The structures were confirmed by 1 H NMR.