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

Pyrrole-containing hybrids as potential anticancer agents: An insight into current developments and structure-activity relationships

Cancer poses a significant threat to human health. Therefore, it is urgent to develop potent anti-cancer drugs with excellent inhibitory activity and no toxic side effects. Pyrrole and its derivatives are privileged heterocyclic compounds with significant diverse pharmacological effects. These compounds can target various aspects of cancer cells and have been applied in clinical settings or are undergoing clinical trials. As a result, pyrrole has emerged as a promising drug scaffold and has been further probed to get novel entities for the treatment of cancer. This article reviews recent research progress on anti-cancer drugs containing pyrrole. It focuses on the mechanism of action, biological activity, and structure-activity relationships of pyrrole derivatives, aiming to assist in designing and synthesizing innovative pyrrole-based anti-cancer compounds.

Novel 3-phenylquinazolin-2,4(1H,3H)-diones as dual VEGFR-2/c-Met-TK inhibitors: design, synthesis, and biological evaluation

Multitarget anticancer drugs are more superior than single target drugs regarding patient compliance, drug adverse effects, drug-drug interactions, drug resistance as well as pharmaceutical industry economics. Dysregulation of both VEGFR-2 and c-Met tyrosine kinases (TKs) could result in development and progression of different human cancers. Herein, we reported a novel series of 3-phenylquinazolin-2,4(1H,3H)-diones with thiourea moiety as dual VEGFR-2/c-Met TKs. Compared to sorafenib, cabozantinib went behind VEGFR-2 inhibition to target c-Met TK. The dual VEGFR-2/c-Met inhibitory activity of cabozantinib is due to a longer HB domain than that of sorafenib. Based on pharmacophore of cabozantinib analogues, we designed new dual VEGFR-2/c-Met TKs. We synthesized the target compounds via a new single pot three-component reaction. The cytotoxic activity of synthesized compounds was conducted against HCT-116 colorectal cancer cell line. Compounds 3c and 3e exhibited the highest cytotoxic activity against HCT-116 cell line (IC50 1.184 and 3.403 µM, respectively). The in vitro enzyme inhibitory activity was carried out against both VEGFR-2 and c-Met TKs. Compound 3e has the highest inhibitory activity against both VEGFR-2/c-Met (IC50 = 83 and 48 nM, respectively). Docking studies showed that α-oxo moiety in quinazoline ring formed hydrogen bond HB with Met1160 residue in the adenine region of c-Met TK.

Targeting MET: Discovery of Small Molecule Inhibitors as Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Therapy

MET has been considered as a promising drug target for the treatment of MET-dependent diseases, particularly non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Small molecule MET inhibitors with mainly three types of binding modes (Ia/Ib, II, and III) have been developed. In this Review, we provide an overview of the structural features, activation mechanism, and dysregulation pathway of MET and summarize progress on the development and discovery strategies utilized for MET inhibitors as well as mechanisms of acquired resistance to current approved inhibitors. The insights will accelerate discovery of new generation MET inhibitors to overcome clinical acquired resistance.

Recent progress on vascular endothelial growth factor receptor inhibitors with dual targeting capabilities for tumor therapy

Vascular endothelial growth factor receptors (VEGFRs) are a family of receptor protein tyrosine kinases that play an important role in the regulation of tumor-induced angiogenesis. Currently, VEGFR inhibitors have been widely used in the treatment of various tumors. However, current VEGFR inhibitors are limited to a certain extent due to limited clinical efficacy and potential toxicity, which hinder their clinical application. Thus, the development of new strategies to improve the clinical outcomes and minimize the toxic effects of VEGFR inhibitors is required. Given the synergistic effect of VEGFR and other therapies in tumor development and progression, VEGFR dual-target inhibitors are becoming an attractive approach due to their favorable pharmacodynamics, low toxicity, and anti-resistant effects. This perspective provides an overview of the development of VEGFR dual-target inhibitors from multiple aspects, including rational target combinations, drug discovery strategies, structure–activity relationships and future directions.

An approach to pharmacological targets of pyrrole family from a medicinal chemistry viewpoint

Pyrrole is one of the most widely used heterocycles in the pharmaceutical industry. Due to the importance of pyrrole structure in drug design and development, herein, we tried to conduct an extensive review of the bioactive pyrrole based compounds reported recently. The bioactivity of pyrrole derivatives varies, so in the review, we categorized them based on their direct pharmacologic targets. Therefore, readers are able to find the variety of biologic targets for pyrrole containing compounds easily. This review explains around seventy different biologic targets for pyrrole based derivatives, so, it is helpful for medicinal chemists in design and development novel bioactive compounds for different diseases. This review presents an extensive meaningful structure activity relationship for each reported structure as much as possible. The review focuses on papers published between 2018 and 2020.

Fused pyrrolo-pyridines and pyrrolo-(iso)quinoline as anticancer agents

This work emphasizes the synthesis strategies and antiproliferative related properties of fused pyrrolo-pyridine (including indolizine and azaindoles) and pyrrolo-(iso)quinoline derivatives recently reported in literature.

Medicinal attributes of pyridine scaffold as anticancer targeting agents

Background

The heterocyclic compounds particularly pyridine displayed clinical and biological implementation. Pyridine scaffolds have been detected in most relevant drug molecules that included pyridine provided a great possibility for treatment.

Main text

Pyridine-containing compounds have increasing importance for medicinal application as antiviral, anticholinesterase activities, antimalarial, antimicrobial, antidiabetic and anticancer. This has generated concern among researchers in synthesising a variety of pyridine derivatives.

Conclusion

This review focuses on different pyridine targets as anticancer and their pharmacophoric elements controlling its activity.

Structure-activity relationship study of novel quinazoline-based 1,6-naphthyridinones as MET inhibitors with potent antitumor efficacy

As a privileged scaffold, the quinazoline ring is widely used in the development of EGFR inhibitors, while few quinazoline-based MET inhibitors are reported. In our ongoing efforts to develop new MET-targeted anticancer drug candidates, a series of quinazoline-based 1,6-naphthyridinone derivatives were designed, synthesized, and evaluated for their biological activities. The preliminary SARs studies indicate that the quinazoline scaffold was also acceptable for the block A of class II MET inhibitors. The further pharmacokinetic studies led to the identification of the most promising compound 22a with favorable in vitro potency (MET, IC₅₀ = 9.0 nM), human microsomal metabolic stability (t_1/2 = 621.2 min) and oral bioavailability (F = 42%). Moreover, 22a displayed good in vivo antitumor efficacy (IR of 81% in 75 mg/kg) in MET-positive human glioblastoma U-87 MG xenograft model. These positive results indicated that 22a is a potential new MET-targeted antitumor drug lead, which is worthy of further development.

Discovery of Triazolo-pyridazine/-pyrimidine Derivatives Bearing Aromatic (Heterocycle)-Coupled Azole Units as Class II c-Met Inhibitors

Two series of novel triazolo-pyridazine/-pyrimidine derivatives were designed, synthesized, and evaluated for their inhibitory activity against c-Met kinase, as well as three c-Met overexpressed cancer cell lines (A549, MCF-7, and HeLa) and one normal human hepatocytes cell line LO2 in vitro. The pharmacological data indicated that most of the tested compounds showed moderate cytotoxicity, and the most promising compound 12e exhibited significant cytotoxicity against A549, MCF-7, and HeLa cell lines with IC₅₀ values of 1.06 ± 0.16, 1.23 ± 0.18, and 2.73 ± 0.33 μM, respectively. Moreover, the inhibitory activity of compound 12e against c-Met kinase (IC₅₀ = 0.090 μM) was equal to that of Foretinib (IC₅₀ = 0.019 μM). The result of the acridine orange (AO) single staining test demonstrated that compound 12e could remarkably induce apoptosis of A549 cells. The results of apoptosis and cycle distribution of cells showed that compound 12e could induce late apoptosis of A549 cells and stimulate A549 cells arresting in the G0/G1 phase. Structure-activity relationships (SARs), pharmacological results, and docking studies indicated that the introduction of 5-methylthiazole fragment to the five-atom moiety was beneficial for the activity. So far, the existing data indicated that compound 12e may become a potential class II c-Met inhibitor.

Research Progress of Small Molecule VEGFR/c-Met Inhibitors as Anticancer Agents (2016-Present)

Vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2 (VEGFR-2) binds to VEGFR-A, VEGFR-C and VEGFR-D and participates in the formation of tumor blood vessels, mediates the proliferation of endothelial cells, enhances microvascular permeability, and blocks apoptosis. Blocking or downregulating the signal transduction of VEGFR is the main way to discover new drugs for many human angiogenesis-dependent malignancies. Mesenchymal epithelial transfer factor tyrosine kinase (c-Met) is a high affinity receptor for hepatocyte growth factor (HGF). Abnormal c-Met signaling plays an important role in the formation, invasion and metastasis of human tumors. Therefore, the HGF/c-Met signaling pathway has become a significant target for cancer treatment. Related studies have shown that the conduction of the VEGFR and c-Met signaling pathways has a synergistic effect in inducing angiogenesis and inhibiting tumor growth. In recent years, multi-target small molecule inhibitors have become a research hotspot, among which the research of VEGFR and c-Met dual-target small molecule inhibitors has become more and more extensive. In this review, we comprehensively summarize the chemical structures and biological characteristics of novel VEGFR/c-Met dual-target small-molecule inhibitors in the past five years.

Design, synthesis and biological evaluation of novel N-sulfonylamidine-based derivatives as c-Met inhibitors via Cu-catalyzed three-component reaction

In our continuing efforts to develop novel c-Met inhibitors as potential anticancer candidates, a series of new N-sulfonylamidine derivatives were designed, synthesized via Cu-catalyzed multicomponent reaction (MCR) as the key step, and evaluated for their in vitro biological activities against c-Met kinase and four cancer cell lines (A549, HT-29, MKN-45 and MDA-MB-231). Most of the target compounds showed moderate to significant potency at both the enzyme-based and cell-based assay and possessed selectivity for A549 and HT-29 cancer cell lines. The preliminary SAR studies demonstrated that compound 26af (c-Met IC₅₀ = 2.89 nM) was the most promising compound compared with the positive foretinib, which exhibited the remarkable antiproliferative activities, with IC₅₀ values ranging from 0.28 to 0.72 μM. Mechanistic studies of 26af showed the anticancer activity was closely related to the blocking phosphorylation of c-Met, leading to cell cycle arresting at G2/M phase and apoptosis of A549 cells by a concentration-dependent manner. The promising compound 26af was further identified as a relatively selective inhibitor of c-Met kinase, which also possessed an acceptable safety profile and favorable pharmacokinetic properties in BALB/c mouse. The favorable drug-likeness of 26af suggested that N-sulfonylamidines may be used as a promising scaffold for antitumor drug development. Additionally, the docking study and molecular dynamics simulations of 26af revealed a common mode of interaction with the binding site of c-Met. These positive results indicated that compound 26af is a potential anti-cancer candidate for clinical trials, and deserves further development as a selective c-Met inhibitor.

Discovery of [1,2,4]triazolo[4,3-a]pyrazine derivatives bearing a 4-oxo-pyridazinone moiety as potential c-Met kinase inhibitors

We disclosed the preparation and biological evaluation of a series of [1,2,4]triazolo[4,3-a]pyrazine derivatives bearing 4-oxo-pyridazinone moieties, which demonstrated potent inhibition of c-Met kinase, culminating in the discovery of 22i.

Prediction of cytotoxic activity of a series of 1H-pyrrolo[2,3-b]pyridine derivatives as possible inhibitors of c-Met using molecular fingerprints

Cancer is a leading cause of death all over the world. HGF/MET signaling pathway is involved in many cancers and its inhibition has great potential as an effective therapeutic intervention. A series of 1H-pyrrolo [2,3-b]pyridine derivatives has recently been identified with cytotoxic activity, and most of them exhibited considerable potencies with IC₅₀ values under 10 µM. The present study was carried out with the specific aim to shed light upon the quantitative structure activity relationship (QSAR) to design and predict the activity of new potent inhibitors using molecular fingerprints and some 2D and 3D descriptors. The built model was statistically significant in terms of R² = 0.90 and R²_pred = 0.91 values. Fingerprint PubchemFP759 (1-chloro-2-methylbenzene) was the most effective fragment in the biological activity and just appeared in the most active compound 7j with a pIC₅₀ value of 8.0. A similarity search study was applied based on compounds 7c and 17e, with reported inhibitory activity against c-Met kinase, which showed that also other compounds could possess similar effects against c-Met enzyme. The most promising compound 7g-cl was subjected to docking and molecular dynamics simulation. Two hydrogen bonds between Lys1110, Met1160, and 7g-cl were stable during the equilibrium time range. The suggested modifications might be considered in future studies to design more efficient anticancer agents.

Baricitinib: A 2018 Novel FDA-Approved Small Molecule Inhibiting Janus Kinases

In 2018, Baricitinib was approved by the Food and Drig Administration (FDA) for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. Baricitinib exerts its action by targeting Janus kinases (JAK). In this study, we describe the necessary steps for preparing the drug using two alternative routes.