Hongrui Song

Synthesis and biological evaluation of novel human Pin1 inhibitors with benzophenone skeleton.

A series of novel benzophenone derivatives were prepared and their inhibitory activities were evaluated on hPin1. Of all the synthesized compounds, the most active compound displayed inhibitory activities with an IC(50) value of 5.99 μmol/L. Preliminary structure-activity relationships were analyzed in details and the binding mode of the titled compounds was predicted using FlexX algorithm. The results of this research will shed light on further design and optimization of novel small molecule Pin1 inhibitors.

Synthesis and cytotoxic activity of some novel N-pyridinyl-2-(6-phenylimidazo[2,1-b]thiazol-3-yl)acetamide derivatives.

A series of novel compounds bearing imidazo[2,1-b]thiazole scaffolds were designed and synthesized based on the optimization of the virtual screening hit compound N-(6-morpholinopyridin-3-yl)-2-(6-phenylimidazo[2,1-b]thiazol-3-yl)acetamide (5a), and tested for their cytotoxicity against human cancer cell lines, including HepG2 and MDA-MB-231. The results indicated that the compound 2-(6-(4-chlorophenyl)imidazo[2,1-b]thiazol-3-yl)-N-(6-(4-(4-methoxybenzyl)piperazin-1-yl)pyridin-3-yl)acetamide (5l), with slightly higher inhibition on VEGFR2 than 5a (5.72% and 3.76% inhibitory rate at 20 μM, respectively), was a potential inhibitor against MDA-MB-231 (IC50 = 1.4 μM) compared with sorafenib (IC50 = 5.2 μM), and showed more selectivity against MDA-MB-231 than HepG2 cell line (IC50 = 22.6 μM).

Synthesis and evaluation of novel N-3-benzimidazolephenylbisamide derivatives for antiproliferative and Hedgehog pathway inhibitory activity

A series of novel N-3-benzimidazolephenylbisamide derivatives bearing the 4-benzyloxyphenyl moiety were synthesized and evaluated for their antiproliferative activity against MGC803, HT29, MKN45 and SW620 cancer cell lines in vitro. The pharmacological data demonstrated that the majority of the target compounds exhibited higher efficacy against MGC803, HT29 and MKN45 cells, among which compound 7m displayed higher antiproliferative activity than vismodegib. Furthermore, compound 7m manifested better inhibition of the Hedgehog (Hh) signaling pathway in different Hh-related assays and may compete with boron-dipyrromethene (BODIPY)-cyclopamine for binding to the human smoothened (Smo) receptor. In addition, molecular docking studies suggested that compound 7m interacts very closely with the vismodegib docking pose through hydrogen bonds at the taladegib binding site of the Smo receptor.

Synthesis and cytotoxic evaluation of N-(4-methoxy-1H-benzo[d]imidazol-7-yl)-arylsulfonamide and N-aryl-(4-methoxy-1H-benzo[d]imidazol)-7-sulfonamide analogs of combretastatin A-4

Two series of novel benzoimidazole sulfonamides as combretastatin A-4 analogs were synthesized. The cytotoxicities of the title compounds were evaluated against five different cancer cell lines. Among the tested compounds, four compounds displayed cytotoxicities against the HCT8 cell line. Compound 6a has shown the strongest potency against the tested human tumor cell lines with an IC50 value ranging from submicromolar to micromolar level.

Synthesis and Smo Activity of Some Novel Benzamide Derivatives

Two series of benzamides compounds bearing piperidine groups were synthesized and the Gli-luc luciferase activity was screened by Gys-luc luciferase gene detection method. Compound 5q showed promising inhibition of hedgehog (Hh) signaling pathway. To further verify whether the Hh inhibitory activities of the target compounds are derived from their inhibition to the Smoothened (Smo) receptor, the compounds with good potency were evaluated in a fluorescence competitive displacement assays, the results showed the Smo inhibitory potency of these compounds correlated well with their Hh inhibition, which suggested that the observed Hh activity was driven by Smo inhibitors.

Design, synthesis and evaluation of novel tetrahydrothieno[3,2-c]pyridine derivatives as potent smoothened antagonists

Hedgehog (Hh) signalling plays an important role in embryonic development and adult tissue homeostasis. Since activation of the Hh signalling pathway is implicated in several types of human cancers, inhibitors of this pathway could be promising anticancer agents. The smoothened (Smo) receptor mediates Hh signalling. In the present study, we synthesised a series of novel tetrahydrothieno[3,2-c]pyridine derivatives using a scaffold hopping strategy. Compounds with this novel scaffold demonstrated promising Hh and Smo inhibition, indicating that this novel scaffold can serve as a starting point for further optimisation.

Versatile methods for synthesizing organic acid salts of quaternary berberine-type alkaloids as anti-ulcerative colitis agents

Abstract Two versatile methods to synthesize kinds of organic acid salts of quaternary berberine-type alkaloids were investigated in order to determine which is more efficient to improve the liposolubility of the target compounds and to explore the efficacy of the target compounds as anti-ulcerative colitis (UC) agents. Overall evaluation according to the reaction results and yields of the final products indicated that the synthetic method using tertiary (±)-8-acylmethyldihydroberberine-type alkaloids as key intermediates is superior to that of using tertiary dihydroberberine-type alkaloids as intermediates. Ten target compounds were synthesized using quaternary berberine chloride and quaternary coptisine chloride as starting materials, respectively, and the anti-UC activity of some target compounds was evaluated in an in vitro x-box-binding protein 1 (XBP1) transcriptional activity assay using dual luciferase reporter detection. At 10 μM, the tested compounds were found to activate the transcription of XBP1 target at almost the same level as that of quaternary coptisine chloride. The synthesized target compounds were also found to share higher liposolubility than the inorganic acid salts of quaternary berberine-type alkaloid.

Design, synthesis and biological evaluation of sulfenimine cephalosporin analogues as β -lactamase inhibitors

A series of sulfenimine cephalosporin derivatives(6a—6t) was designed, synthesized and evaluated for their inhibitory activity against class A β-lactamase(TEM-1) derived from E. coli, and class C β-lactamase (cephalosporinase) derived from wild Bacillus subtilis in cell-free systems. Most of the tested compounds showed enhanced inhibitory activity against class C β-lactamase(cephalosporinase) compared with tazobactam. The most promising compounds 6c and 6o in combination with cefradine(IC50=1.80 and 1.59 μmol/L, respectively) were further investigated against a series of clinical isolated β-lactamase-producing bacterial strains. The results reveal that compounds 6c and 6o in combination with cefradine show two to four times more activity than cefradine alone against methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus(MSSA) and Klebsiella pneumoniae. The data suggest that the sulfenimine moiety may be beneficial to the activity and selectivity of inhibitors.