Design and synthesis of novel hexahydrobenzo[4,5]thieno[2,3-d]pyrimidine derivatives as potential anticancer agents with antiangiogenic activity via VEGFR-2 inhibition, and down-regulation of PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway

Thiazolation of phenylthiosemicarbazone to access new thiazoles: anticancer activity and molecular docking

Aim: Novel thiazole hybrids were synthesized via thiazolation of 4-phenylthiosemicarbazone (4). Materials & methods: The anticancer activity against the NCI 60 cancer cell line panel. Results: Methyl 2-(2-((1-(naphthalen-2-yl)ethylidene)hydrazineylidene)-4-oxo-3-phenylthiazolidin-5-ylidene)acetate (6a) showed significant anticancer activity at 10 μM with a mean growth inhibition (GI) of 51.18%. It showed the highest cytotoxic activity against the ovarian cancer OVCAR-4 with an IC50 of 1.569 ± 0.06 μM. Compound 6a inhibited PI3Kα with IC50 = 0.225 ± 0.01 μM. Moreover, compound 6a revealed a decrease of Akt and mTOR phosphorylation in OVCAR-4 cells. In addition, antibacterial activity showed that compounds 11 and 12 were the most active against Staphylococcus aureus. Conclusion: Compound 6a is a promising molecule that could be a lead candidate for further studies.

QSAR analysis of VEGFR-2 inhibitors based on machine learning, Topomer CoMFA and molecule docking

VEGFR-2 kinase inhibitors are clinically approved drugs that can effectively target cancer angiogenesis. However, such inhibitors have adverse effects such as skin toxicity, gastrointestinal reactions and hepatic impairment. In this study, machine learning and Topomer CoMFA, which is an alignment-dependent, descriptor-based method, were employed to build structural activity relationship models of potentially new VEGFR-2 inhibitors. The prediction ac-curacy of the training and test sets of the 2D-SAR model were 82.4 and 80.1%, respectively, with KNN. Topomer CoMFA approach was then used for 3D-QSAR modeling of VEGFR-2 inhibitors. The coefficient of q2 for cross-validation of the model 1 was greater than 0.5, suggesting that a stable drug activity-prediction model was obtained. Molecular docking was further performed to simulate the interactions between the five most promising compounds and VEGFR-2 target protein and the Total Scores were all greater than 6, indicating that they had a strong hydrogen bond interactions were present. This study successfully used machine learning to obtain five potentially novel VEGFR-2 inhibitors to increase our arsenal of drugs to combat cancer.

Novel pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidine derivatives: design, synthesis, anticancer evaluation, VEGFR-2 inhibition, and antiangiogenic activity

A novel series of 12 pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidine derivatives were created and evaluated in vitro for their antiproliferative activity against the NCI 60 human tumor cell line panel. Compounds 12a-d displayed significant antitumor activity against MDA-MB-468 and T-47D (breast cancer cell lines), especially compound 12b, which exhibited the highest anticancer activity against MDA-MB-468 and T-47D cell lines with IC50 values of 3.343 ± 0.13 and 4.792 ± 0.21 μM, respectively compared to staurosporine with IC50 values of 6.358 ± 0.24 and 4.849 ± 0.22 μM. The most potent cytotoxic derivatives 12a-d were studied for their VEGFR-2 inhibitory activity to explore the mechanism of action of these substances. Compound 12b had potent activity against VEGFR-2 with an IC50 value of 0.063 ± 0.003 μM, compared to sunitinib with IC50 = 0.035 ± 0.012 μM. Moreover, there was an excellent reduction in HUVEC migratory potential that resulted in a significant disruption of wound healing patterns by 23% after 72 h of treatment with compound 12b. Cell cycle and apoptosis investigations showed that compound 12b could stop the cell cycle at the S phase and significantly increase total apoptosis in the MDA-MB-468 cell line by 18.98-fold compared to the control. Moreover, compound 12b increased the caspase-3 level in the MDA-MB-468 cell line by 7.32-fold as compared to the control.

Design, synthesis, anticancer evaluation, and in silico studies of some thieno[2,3-d]pyrimidine derivatives as EGFR inhibitors

New series of 20 thieno[2,3-d]pyrimidine derivatives have been synthesized. The National Cancer Institute evaluated all the newly synthesized compounds for their antiproliferative activity against a panel of 60 cancer cell lines. Compound 7b exhibited a remarkable antineoplastic activity at 10 µM dose and was therefore tested at five dose concentrations. The significant and broad-spectrum antineoplastic action of compound 7b was observed against 37 of the tested cancer cell lines with a dose that inhibits 50% of the growth compared to control values in the micromolar range of 1.95-9.6 µM. The dose which inhibits the growth completely in the cytostatic range of 3.99-100 µM was also observed. Compound 7b effectively inhibited epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) with 50% inhibition concentration value (IC50 ) = 0.096 ± 0.004 compared to erlotinib with IC50  = 0.037 ± 0.002. Moreover, compound 7b revealed a powerful downregulation effect on total EGFR concentration and its phosphorylation. In addition, compound 7b inhibited phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase, protein kinase B, and the mammalian target of rapamycin pathway phosphorylation. Furthermore, compound 7b raised total apoptosis by 21.93-fold in the ovarian cancer cell line (OVCAR-4) and caused an arrest in the cell cycle in the G1/S phase. It also raised the level of caspase-3 by 4.72-fold. Furthermore, to determine the binding manner of the most effective derivatives and validate their capacity to comply with the pharmacophoric properties necessary for EGFR inhibition, they were docked into the active site of the EGFR.