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

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

  • Eur J Med Chem. 2020 Aug 15;200:112470. doi: 10.1016/j.ejmech.2020.112470.
Xiang Nan 1,  Jing Zhang 2,  Hui-Jing Li 3,  Rui Wu 4,  Sen-Biao Fang 5,  Zhi-Zhou Zhang 6,  Yan-Chao Wu 7
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 School of Marine Science and Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology, Weihai, 264209, PR China.
  • 2 Department of Pharmacy, The 3201 Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, Hanzhong, 723000, PR China.
  • 3 School of Marine Science and Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology, Weihai, 264209, PR China; Weihai Institute of Marine Biomedical Industrial Technology, Wendeng District, Weihai, 264400, PR China. Electronic address: lihuijing@iccas.ac.cn.
  • 4 Department of Pharmacy, The 3201 Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, Hanzhong, 723000, PR China. Electronic address: yjk_3201@163.com.
  • 5 School of Computer Science and Engineering, Central South University, Changsha, 410082, PR China. Electronic address: fangsb@csu.edu.cn.
  • 6 School of Marine Science and Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology, Weihai, 264209, PR China; Weihai Institute of Marine Biomedical Industrial Technology, Wendeng District, Weihai, 264400, PR China.
  • 7 School of Marine Science and Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology, Weihai, 264209, PR China; Weihai Institute of Marine Biomedical Industrial Technology, Wendeng District, Weihai, 264400, PR China. Electronic address: ycwu@iccas.ac.cn.
PMID: 32505087 DOI: 10.1016/j.ejmech.2020.112470
Abstract

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.

Keywords

Biological evaluation; Cu-catalyzed three-component reaction; Docking study; N-Sulfonylamidine; c-Met inhibitors.

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