New sorafenib derivatives: synthesis, antiproliferative activity against tumour cell lines and antimetabolic evaluation

Diarylureas as Antitumor Agents

The diarylurea is a scaffold of great importance in medicinal chemistry as it is present in numerous heterocyclic compounds with antithrombotic, antimalarial, antibacterial, and anti-inflammatory properties. Some diarylureas, serine-threonine kinase or tyrosine kinase inhibitors, were recently reported in literature. The first to come into the market as an anticancer agent was sorafenib, followed by some others. In this review, we survey progress over the past 10 years in the development of new diarylureas as anticancer agents.

Synthesis and cytotoxic evaluation of some novel quinoxalinedione diarylamide sorafenib analogues

A series of novel sorafenib analogues containing a quinoxalinedione ring and amide linker were synthesized. A total of 9 novel compounds in 6 synthetic steps were synthesized. Briefly, the amino group of p-aminophenol was first protected which then followed by O-arylation with 5-chloro-2-nitroaniline to provide compound d. Reduction of the nitro group of compound d and cyclization of the diamine group of compound e with oxalic acid afforded compound f which on deacetylation yeilded compound g. Then compound g was reacted with different acyl halides to afford the target compounds 1h-1p. Chemical structures of synthesized compounds were confirmed by 1H NMR and FT-IR analysis. All compounds were evaluated at 1, 10, 50 and 100 μM concentrations for their cytotoxicity against HeLa and MCF-7 cancer cell lines. Some of the compounds showed good cytotoxic activity, especially compounds 1i and 1k-1n with the IC50 values of 19, 16, 22, 18, and 16 μM against MCF-7 cell line and 20, 18, 25, 20, and 18 μM against HeLa cell line, respectively.

Design, synthesis and evaluation of novel diaryl urea derivatives as potential antitumor agents

A novel series of diaryl ureas containing different linker groups were designed and synthesized. Their in vitro antitumor activity against MX-1, A375, HepG2, Ketr3 and HT-29 was evaluated using the standard MTT assay. Compounds having a rigid linker group such as vinyl, ethynyl and phenyl showed significant inhibitory activity against a variety of cancer cell lines. Specifically, compound 23 with a phenyl linker group demonstrated broad-spectrum antitumor activity with IC50 values of 5.17-6.46 μM against five tested tumor cell lines. Compound 23 is more potent than reference drug sorafenib (8.27-15.2 μM), representing a promising lead for further optimization.