Design, synthesis and 3D-QSAR studies of novel 1,4-dihydropyridines as TGFβ/Smad inhibitors

Targeting TGFβ/Smad signaling is an attractive strategy for several therapeutic applications given its role as a key player in many pathologies, including Cancer, autoimmune diseases and fibrosis. The class of b-annelated 1,4-dihydropyridines (DHPs) represents promising novel pharmacological tools as they interfere with this pathway in a novel fashion, i.e. through induction of TGFβ receptor type II degradation. In the present work, >40 rationally designed, novel DHPs were synthesized and evaluated for TGFβ inhibition, substantially expanding the current understanding of the SAR profile. Key findings include that the 2-position tolerates a wide variety of polar functionalities, suggesting that this region could possibly be solvent-exposed within the (thus far) unknown cellular target. A structural explanation for pathway selectivity is provided based on a diverse series of 4″-substituted DHPs, including molecular electrostatic potential (MEP) calculations. Moreover, the absolute configuration for the chiral 4-position was determined by X-ray crystal analysis and revealed that the bioactive (+)-enantiomers are (R)-configured. Another key objective was to establish a 3D-QSAR model which turned out to be robust (r(2) = 0.93) with a good predictive power (r(2)pred = 0.69). This data further reinforces the hypothesis that this type of DHPs exerts its novel TGFβ inhibitory mode of action through binding a distinct target and that unspecific activities that would derive from intrinsic properties of the ligands (e.g., lipophilicity) play a negligible role. Therefore, the present study provides a solid basis for further ligand-based design of additional analogs or DHP scaffold-derived compounds for hit-to-lead optimization, required for more comprehensive pharmacological studies in vivo.

3D-QSAR model; Absolute configuration; Crystal structure; Molecular electrostatic potential (MEP); Structure–activity relationships (SARs); Transforming growth factor β (TGFβ); b-Anellated 1,4-dihydropyridines (1,4-DHPs).