New bioactive 5-arylcarboximidamidopyrazolo[3,4-c]pyridines: Synthesis, cytotoxic activity, mechanistic investigation and structure-activity relationships

In this study, a series of novel substituted pyrazolo[3,4-c]pyridin-5-ylamidines was synthesized and their cytotoxicity against three cancer cell lines (MDA-MB-231, HT-1080, PC-3), as well as a human normal cell line (AG01523) was evaluated. A number of derivatives could strongly reduce cancer cells proliferation and exhibit apoptotic induction capability, while reasonable structure-activity relationships could be extracted. Certain analogues were endowed with low toxicity against normal cells. Cell cycle analysis revealed that most of the active compounds induced a G₀/G₁ arrest of HT-1080 cells. Moreover, the potential mechanisms of the cytotoxic activity of the promising compounds were investigated in HT-1080 cells, upon study of their effects on the phosphorylation of Akt, ERK and p38 MAPK. Most of the active derivatives inhibit phosphorylation of Akt and ERK and/or induce p38 MAPK phosphorylation, providing a potential indication on the mode of action of this class.

Synthesis, Docking Study and Kinase Inhibitory Activity of a Number of New Substituted Pyrazolo[3,4-c]pyridines

A series of new pyrazolo[3,4-c]pyridines bearing various 1, 3, 5 or 1, 3, 7 pattern substitutions, were designed and synthesized. Some of them showed interesting inhibitory activity mainly against glycogen synthase kinase 3 (GSK3)α/β as well as against cdc2-like kinases 1 (CLK1) and dual-specificity tyrosine phosphorylation-regulated kinase 1A (DYRK1A), with good selectivity and remarkable structure-activity relationships (SARs), without being cytotoxic. Molecular simulations in correlation with biological data revealed the importance of the existence of N1-H as well as the absence of a bulky 7-substituent.