Diarylamides in anticancer drug discovery: A review of pre-clinical and clinical investigations

Several diarylamide compounds have been highlighted as potential anticancer agents. Among them, imatinib, dasatinib, and nilotinib have been marketed for treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). CML is a cancer type that originates in specific cells in bone marrow and is considered as life-threating disease. Imatinib is the first generation of tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) to be approved for treatment of CML. Second generation drugs, dasatinib and nilotinib, were introduced for patients that are resistant or intolerant to imatinib therapy. Second generation drugs induce faster responses with fewer side effects when compared to imatinib. In this literature review, we reviewed recent advances of diarylamide anticancer agents, including first and second generation drugs treating CML and their other uses, in addition to other compounds that are still in preclinical phases. This review focuses on the reports published in the literature from 2010 to 2019.

Synthesis of new diarylamides with pyrimidinyl pyridine scaffold and evaluation of their anti-proliferative effect on cancer cell lines

A new series of diarylamides, having a pyrimidinyl pyridine scaffold, was designed and synthesized. The target compounds were synthesized in three steps. A selected group from the target compounds was tested over a panel of 60 cancer cell lines at a single dose concentration of 10 μM, and the most active compound, 5j, was further tested in a five-dose testing mode to determine its IC50 value over the 60 cell lines. In single-dose testing mode, compound 5j showed the highest growth inhibition against the NCI-60 cancer cell lines, while other tested compounds showed a weak to moderate inhibitory activity against a range of different cancer cell lines. In five-dose testing mode, compound 5j showed strong inhibitory activity in micro molar range against many cancer cell lines. Its major activity was against melanoma cancer cell lines. Therefore, compound 5j is a promising hit compound targeting this severe form of cancer.

A new series of diarylamides possessing quinoline nucleus: Synthesis, in vitro anticancer activities, and kinase inhibitory effect

Synthesis of a new series of diarylamides possessing 6,7-dimethoxy(dihydroxy)quinoline scaffold is described. Their in vitro antiproliferative activities against NCI-58 human cancer cell lines of nine different cancer types were tested. Compounds 1a and 1d-g showed the highest mean %inhibition values over the 58 cell line panel at 10 μM, and they were further tested in 5-dose testing mode to determine their IC50 values. The five compounds were more potent than Imatinib against all the cell lines of nine different cancer types. Compound 1g showed the highest potencies. It showed inhibitory effect against C-RAF kinase (76.65% at 10 μM concentration).