Design, synthesis and biological evaluation of AZD9291 derivatives as selective and potent EGFRL858R/T790M inhibitors

Rational design and synthesis of 2,4-dichloro-6-methyl pyrimidine derivatives as potential selective EGFRT790M/L858R inhibitors for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer

Many patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) initially benefit from epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) targeted therapy. Unfortunately, varying degrees of resistance or side effects eventually develop. Overcoming and preventing the resistance and side effects of EGFR inhibitors has become a hot topic of research today. Based on the previous studies on AZD-9291, we designed and synthesized two series of 2,4-dichloro-6-methylpyrimidine derivatives, 19 compounds in total, as potential inhibitors of the EGFR kinase. The most promising compound, L-18, showed better inhibitory activity (81.9%) and selectivity against EGFRT790M/L858R kinase. In addition, L-18 showed strong antiproliferative activity against H1975 cells with an IC50 value of 0.65 ± 0.06 μM and no toxicity to normal cells (LO-2). L-18 was able to dose-dependently induce the apoptosis of H1975 cells and produced a cell-cycle-blocking effect, and it can also dose-dependently inhibit the migration and invasion of H1975 cells. L-18 also showed in vivo anticancer efficacy in H1975 cells xenograft mice. We also performed a series of in vivo and in vitro toxicological evaluations of compound L-18, which did not cause obvious injury in mice during administration. These results suggest that L-18 may be a promising drug candidate that warrants further investigation.

Late-stage modification of complex drug: Base-controlled Pd-catalyzed regioselective synthesis and bioactivity of arylated osimertinibs

Achieving regioselective synthesis in complex molecules with multiple reactive sites remains a tremendous challenge in synthetic chemistry. Regiodivergent palladium-catalyzed C─H arylation of complex antitumor drug osimertinib with various aryl bromides via the late-stage functionalization strategy was demonstrated here. This reaction displayed a switch in regioselectivity under complete base control. Potassium carbonate (K2CO3) promoted the arylation of acrylamide terminal C(sp2)-H, affording 34 derivatives. Conversely, sodium tert-butoxide (t-BuONa) mediated the aryl C(sp2)-H arylation of the indole C2 position, providing 27 derivatives. The derivative 3r containing a 3-fluorophenyl group at the indole C2 position demonstrated similar inhibition of EGFRT790M/L858R and superior antiproliferative activity in H1975 cells compared to osimertinib, as well as similar antiproliferative activity in A549 cells and antitumor efficacy in xenograft mouse model bearing H1975 cells. This approach provides a "one substrate-multi reactions-multiple products" strategy for the structural modification of complex drug molecules, creating more opportunities for the fast screening of pharmaceutical molecules.

Anticancer evaluations of iodoquinazoline substituted with allyl and/or benzyl as dual inhibitors of EGFRWT and EGFRT790M: design, synthesis, ADMET and molecular docking

Fifteen new iodoquinazoline derivatives, 5a,b to 18, are reported in this study and their anticancer evaluation as dual inhibitors of EGFRWT and EGFRT790M. The new derivatives were designed according to the target of structural requirements of receptors. Cytotoxicity of our compounds was evaluated against MCF-7, A549, HCT116 and HepG2 cell lines using MTT assay. Compounds 18, 17 and 14b showed the highest anticancer effects with IC50 = 5.25, 6.46, 5.68 and 5.24 μM, 5.55, 6.85, 5.40 and 5.11 μM and 5.86, 7.03, 6.15 and 5.77 μM against HepG2, MCF-7, HCT116 and A549 cell lines, respectively. The eight highly effective compounds 10, 13, 14a, 14b, 15, 16, 17 and 18 were inspected against VERO normal cell lines to evaluate their cytotoxicity. Our conclusion was that compounds 10, 13, 14a, 14b, 15, 16, 17 and 18 possessed low toxicity against VERO normal cells with IC50 increasing from 43.44 to 52.11 μM. All compounds were additionally assessed for their EGFRWT and EGFRT790M inhibitory activities. Additionally, their ability to bind with EGFRWT and EGFR receptors was confirmed by molecular docking. Compound 17 exhibited the same inhibitory activity as erlotinib. Compounds 10, 13, 14b, 16 and 18 excellently inhibited VEGFR-2 activity with IC50 ranging from 0.17 to 0.50 μM. Moreover, compounds 18, 17, 14b and 16 remarkably inhibited EGFRT790M activity with IC50 = 0.25, 0.30, 0.36 and 0.40 μM respectively. As planned, compounds 18, 17 and 14b showed excellent dual EGFRWT/EGFRT790M inhibitory activities. Finally, our compounds 18, 17 and 14b displayed good in silico ADMET calculated profiles.

Design, Construction, and Screening of Diversified Pyrimidine-Focused DNA-Encoded Libraries

Pyrimidine is a ubiquitous component in natural products and approved drugs, providing an ideal modular scaffold for generating libraries with drug-like properties. DNA-encoded library technology introduces a novel library modality where each small molecule is covalently linked to a unique oligo tag. This technology offers the advantages of rapidly generating and interrogating large-scale libraries containing billions of members, substantially reducing the entry barrier to their use in both academia and the pharmaceutical industry. In this Letter, we describe the synthesis of three DNA-encoded libraries based on different functionalized pyrimidine cores featuring diversified chemoselectivity and regioselectivity. Preliminary screening of these DNA-encoded libraries against BRD4 identified compounds with nanomolar inhibition activities.

Development and validation of an LC-MS/MS method for simultaneous determination of SH-1028, an irreversible third-generation EGFR TKI, and two of its metabolites in human plasma: application in clinical pharmacokinetics

SH-1028 is a novel, potent, and highly selective epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor (EGFR-TKI) developed for the treatment of T790M Mutation-positive non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The objective was to develop an LC-MS/MS method for the simultaneous determination of SH-1028 and its metabolites, Imp2 and Imp3, in human plasma.The plasma samples were extracted through protein precipitation with acetonitrile on wet ice conditions. A rapid, sensitive, and specific method was developed and successfully applied to evaluate the pharmacokinetic (PK) properties of SH-1028 in patients with advanced NSCLC following single and multiple doses of SH-1028 (60 mg).After single-dose administration, the C_max of SH-1028, Imp2, and Imp3 was 11.2, 50.2, and 7.99 ng/mL, respectively. The mean AUC_0-24 h was 138, 602, and 76.7 h*ng/mL, respectively. And the terminal half-life time was 19.9, 14.4, and 26.1 h, respectively. After multiple-dose administration, SH-1028 exhibited a slight accumulation, with a mean accumulation ratio (R_AUC) of 2.00.The study assessed the PK properties of SH-1028 following single and multiple doses in patients with advanced NSCLC and would provide meaningful information for the further development of SH-1028.

Pyrrole-based EGFR inhibitors for the treatment of NCSLC: Binding modes and SARs investigations

The treatment of advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has made substantial progress due to the rapid development of small molecule targeted therapy, with dramatically prolonged survival. As an effective drug for the treatment of NSCLC, epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitors are currently experiencing issues like severe adverse events and drug resistance. It is urgent to develop novel types of EGFR inhibitors to overcome the abovementioned limitations. Pyrrole always works well as a probe for the creation of novel medication candidates for hard-to-treat conditions like lung cancer. Although the design, synthesis, and biological assays of pyrrole derivatives have been reported, their inhibitory actions against the receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) EGFR have not been in-depthly studied. This review highlights the small molecule EGFR inhibitors containing pyrrole heterocyclic pharmacophores in recent years, and the research on their mechanism, biological activity, and structure-activity relationship (SAR).

XS-2, a novel potent dual PI3K/mTOR inhibitor, exhibits high in vitro and in vivo anti-breast cancer activity and low toxicity with the potential to inhibit the invasion and migration of triple-negative breast cancer

Breast cancer has become the most commonly diagnosed cancer, surpassing lung cancer, with 2.26 million new breast cancers worldwide in 2020. Hence, there is an urgent need to develop effective molecularly targeted therapeutic drugs to treat breast cancer. In this paper, we designed, synthesized and screened a novel thiophene-triazine derivative, XS-2, as a potent dual PI3K/mTOR inhibitor for the treatment of breast cancer. Also, XS-2 was found to be potentially effective against triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) in vitro during the investigation. We evaluated the in vitro inhibitory effect of XS-2 on 10 cancer cell lines by MTT and 6 kinases to investigated its in vivo antitumor activity in MCF-7 xenograft tumor-bearing BALB/c nude mice. In addition, the in vitro/in vivo toxicity to mice was also assessed by hemolytic toxicity, H&E staining and blood biochemical analysis. In order to investigate the antitumor mechanism of XS-2, a series of experiments were carried out in vitro/in vivo animal model and molecular biological levels such as the cell cycle and the apoptosis assay, real-time PCR, western blot, docking and molecular simulations analysis, etc. What's more, wound healing assay, Transwell and Western Blot were applied to explore the ability of XS-2 to inhibit the cell invasion and migration. The results showed that XS-2 exhibited strong antitumor activity both in vitro and in vivo. The inhibitory activities of XS-2 on ten cancer cell lines were ranging from 1.07 ± 0.11 to 0.002 ± 0.001 μM, which were 1565 times better than that of the lead compound GDC-0941, inhibitory activities against PI3Kα and mTOR kinases were 291.0 and 60.8 nM, respectively. Notably, XS-2 not only showed significant in vivo antitumor activity and low toxicity, with the tumor inhibition rate of 57.0 %, but also exhibited strong inhibitory in the expression of related proteins of PI3K pathway in tumor tissues. In addition, XS-2 significantly inhibited breast cancer MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cells in a concentration- and time-dependent manner, and inhibited the migration and invasion ability of MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7 cells. More than that, XS-2 could inhibit the increase of the expression levels of N-cadherin and vimentin upregulated by EGF and reversed the E-cadherin expression down regulated by EGF, resulting in inhibiting EMT in MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cells. The results showed that XS-2 was expected to be successfully developed as a high-efficiency and low-toxicity breast cancer therapeutic drug with the potential to inhibit the invasion and migration of TNBC. This provides a new research idea for the treatment of TNBC, which is of great significance.

Pyrimidine derivatives as EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors in NSCLC: - A comprehensive review

EGFR positive NSCLC due to primary mutation (EGFR DEL19 & L858R) has been recognized as a crucial mediator of tumor progression. This led to the development and approval of EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors which addresses EGFR mediated NSCLC but fail to show potency after initial months of therapy due to acquired resistance (EGFR T790M, EGFR C797S). Extensive research allowed identification of drugs for EGFR positive NSCLC, wherein the majority of compounds have a pyrimidine substructure offering marked therapeutic benefits compared to chemotherapy. This current review outlines the diverse pyrimidine derivatives with amino-linked and fused pyrimidine scaffolds such as furo-pyrimidine, pyrimido-pyrimidine, thieno-pyrimidine, highlighting pyrimidine EGFR TK inhibitors reported in research emphasizing structural aspects, design approaches, inhibition potential. selectivity profile towards mutant EGFR conveyed through biological evaluation studies. Furthermore, mentioning the in-silico interaction profile of synthesized compounds for evaluating the binding affinity with key amino acids. The epilogue of review focuses on the recent research that drives forward to aid in the discovery and development of substituted amino and fused scaffolds of pyrimidine that can counteract the mutations and effectively manage EGFR positive NSCLC.

Discovery of SPH5030, a Selective, Potent, and Irreversible Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitor for HER2-Amplified and HER2-Mutant Cancer Treatment

Small-molecule irreversible tyrosine kinase inhibitors as high potent agents have led to improvements in disease-free and overall survival in patients with HER2-amplified cancer. The approved irreversible HER2 inhibitors, neratinib and pyrotinib, both lack HER2 selectivity, leading to off-target adverse events in patients. The development of HER2 mutation during treatment also hampers the progress of the treatment. We used a molecular hybridization strategy for structural optimizations, in conjunction with in vitro and in vivo drug-like property screening, to obtain a clinical candidate SPH5030. Overall, SPH5030 showed excellent activities against four frequent kinds of HER2 mutants and high relative HER2 selectivity compared with neratinib and pyrotinib, good pharmacokinetic characteristics with desirable bioavailabilities, and significant in vivo antitumor efficacy in xenograft mouse models, especially in a HER2 mutation A775_G776insYVMA xenograft mouse model with its potency much higher than those of neratinib and pyrotinib.

Computer-aided design of some quinazoline analogues as epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitors

Background

The treatment of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-muted non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) remains among the utmost important unachieved therapeutic need worldwide. Development of EGFR inhibitors to treat NSCLC mutations has been among the difficult tasks faced by researchers in this area. As such, there is a need to discover more EGFR inhibitors. The purpose of this work is to perform computer-aided/structure-based design of novel EGFR inhibitors, elucidate their nature of interactions with their target, and also assess their ADMET properties as well as their drug-likeness, respectively. Compound 17 with a highest binding affinity of −9.5kcal/mol was identified as the template hit compound using molecular docking virtual screening in our previous work. The compound interacted with the active site of the EGFR receptor via hydrogen bond with the following amino acid residues MET793, MET793, THR854, and ASP855 with bond distances of 2.61394 (Å), 2.18464 (Å), 2.57601 (Å), and 2.68794 (Å), respectively. It also interacted with the active site of the EGFR receptor via halogen bond (GLN791), hydrophobic bond (LEU718, CYS797, LYS745, ALA743, ALA743, and VAL726), electrostatic bond (LYS745), and others (MET766), respectively. Furthermore, from our previous study, the following descriptors (ATSC6m, ATSC8e, MATS7m, SpMax3_Bhp, SpMax5_Bhs, and MaxHBint10) contained in the reported model were found to be responsible for the inhibitory activities of the studied compounds. In this research, the template (compound 17) was modified manually by attaching halo-phenyl and halo-phenyl-amino rings on the para position of the flouro-nitro-benzamide moiety of the template compound, respectively.

Results

A computer-aided design/structure-based approach was used to design six new EGFR inhibitors using molecule 17 as the template compound for the design identified in our previously reported work. Molecular docking investigation was performed to elucidate the binding mode of these newly designed EGFR inhibitors with the binding pose of EGFR receptor (pdb code 4ZAU) and found to have better affinities which range from −9.5 to −10.4 kcal/mol than the template compound and gefitinib, the control, respectively. The ADMET property assessment of these newly designed EGFR inhibitors indicated that they were orally bioavailable with good absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretory properties with no toxicity. And for their drug-likeness, they were seen to have a higher molecular weight which might be as a result of halo-phenyl-amino ring attachments. Based on this finding, halo-phenyl-amino rings might be responsible for the inhibitory activities of these newly designed compounds.

Conclusion

The six newly designed EGFR inhibitors were found to have higher binding affinities toward their target EGFR receptor than the template compound and gefitinib which was used as the control in this research. They were seen to have good ADMET and drug-like properties which indicate that they might be orally bioavailable. Furthermore, according to their synthetic accessibility score, they can be easily synthesized in the laboratory because the values were found to be less than five which fall within the easy portion of the scale. Therefore, this research recommends that these newly designed EGFR inhibitors should be synthesized most especially those with higher binding affinities, good ADMET, and drug-likeness properties than the template compound.

Identification of 3, 4-disubstituted pyridine derivatives as novel CDK8 inhibitors

Selective inhibition of cyclin-dependent kinase 8 (CDK8) has been recently regarded as a potential approach for cancer therapy. A series of novel CDK8 inhibitors with the pyridine core was identified via scaffold hopping from the known CDK8 inhibitor A-7. The new inhibitors were designed to improve the ligand efficiency so as to enhance drug-likeness. Most of the compounds showed significant inhibition against CDK8/cyclin C, and the most active compounds (5d, 5e and 7') displayed IC50 values of 2.4 nM, 5.0 nM and 7.7 nM, respectively. Preliminary kinase profiling of selected compounds against a panel of kinases from different families indicated that this compound class might selectively inhibit CDK8 as well as its paralog CDK19. Some compounds exhibited cellular activity in both MTT and SRB assays against a variety of tumor cells, including HCT-116, A549, MDA-MB-231, KB, KB-VIN and MCF-7. Further flow cytometry analysis revealed a dose-dependent G2/M phase arrest in MDA-MB-231 cells treated with compounds 6'a, 6'b, 6'j and 6'k. In addition, compound 6'k demonstrated moderate antitumor efficacy in HCT-116 mouse models, although unfavorable pharmacokinetic profiles were suggested by preliminary study in mice. The results provided a new structural prototype for the search of selective CDK8 inhibitors as antitumor agents.

New Multi-Targeted Antiproliferative Agents: Design and Synthesis of IC261-Based Oxindoles as Potential Tubulin, CK1 and EGFR Inhibitors

A series of 3-benzylideneindolin-2-one compounds was designed and synthesized based on combretastatin A-4 and compound IC261, a dual casein kinase (CK1)/tubulin polymerization inhibitor, taking into consideration the pharmacophore required for EGFR-tyrosine kinase inhibition. The new molecular entities provoked significant growth inhibition against PC-3, MCF-7 and COLO-205 at a 10 μM dose. Compounds 6-chloro-3-(2,4,6-trimethoxybenzylidene) indolin-2-one, 4b, and 5-methoxy-3-(2,4,6-trimethoxybenzylidene)indolin-2-one, 4e, showed potent activity against the colon cancer COLO-205 cell line with an IC50 value of 0.2 and 0.3 μM. A mechanistic study demonstrated 4b's efficacy in inhibiting microtubule assembly (IC50 = 1.66 ± 0.08 μM) with potential binding to the colchicine binding site (docking study). With an IC50 of 1.92 ± 0.09 μg/mL, 4b inhibited CK1 almost as well as IC261. Additionally, 4b and 4e were effective inhibitors of EGFR-TK with IC50s of 0.19 μg/mL and 0.40 μg/mL compared to Gifitinib (IC50 = 0.05 μg/mL). Apoptosis was induced in COLO-205 cells treated with 4b, with apoptotic markers dysregulated. Caspase 3 levels were elevated to more than three-fold, while Cytochrome C levels were doubled. The cell cycle was arrested in the pre-G1 phase with extensive cellular accumulation in the pre-G1 phase, confirming apoptosis induction. Levels of cell cycle regulating proteins BAX and Bcl-2 were also defective. The binding interaction patterns of these compounds at the colchicine binding site of tubulin and the Gifitinib binding site of EGFR were verified by molecular docking, which adequately matched the reported experimental result. Hence, 4b and 4e are considered promising potent multitarget agents against colon cancer that require optimization.

Novel, selective acrylamide linked quinazolines for the treatment of double mutant EGFR-L858R/T790M Non-Small-Cell lung cancer (NSCLC)

T790M mutation is the most common mechanism of acquired resistance to first-generation epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR-TKIs). To overcome this resistance, 4-anilinoquinazoline-based irreversible inhibitors afatinib, dacomitinib has been developed. However, the clinical application of these irreversible inhibitors is limited due to its narrow selectivity against L858R/T790M mutant EGFR. In an attempt to develop potent and selective EGFR T790M inhibitors, we have designed and synthesized two series of novel acrylamide linked quinazolines. Among them, compounds 2i (IC₅₀ 0.171 µM) and 11h (IC₅₀ 0.159 µM) were identified as potent compounds, which displayed selective and potent anti-proliferative activity on gefitinib-resistant cell line NCI-H1975 as compared to the gefitinib and WZ4002 in cellular assay. Furthermore, a molecular dynamic simulation of 11h was carried out to assess the stability to form a complex with the L858R/T790M EGFR Kinase domain, which demonstrated that complex was stable for the 100 ns and form strong crucial covalent binding contacts with the thiol group of Cys797 residue. Finally, satisfactory in silico pharmacokinetics properties of 2i, 11h and 11i compounds were predicted. The synthesized compounds were also evaluated for in vitro cytotoxic activity/hepatotoxicity against HepG2 cell line through MTT assay. The results revealed that compounds exhibited lower cytotoxicity to HepG2 cells.

Design of more potent quinazoline derivatives as EGFRWT inhibitors for the treatment of NSCLC: a computational approach

Background

Lung cancer remains the leading and deadly type of cancer worldwide. It was estimated to account for about 25% of the 7 million people that died as a result of cancer-related issues/mortality every year in the world. Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the lethal/deadly class of lung cancer with nearly 1.5 million reported cases and less than 20% survival rate. Therefore, it becomes necessary to explore more effective NSCLC drugs.

Result

A computational approach was employed here to design ten new EGFRWT inhibitors using compound 18 as a template for the design identified with the best binding affinity and good pharmacokinetic properties previously reported in our work. The modeled inhibitory activities of these newly designed EGFRWT inhibitors (range from 7.746966 to 11.09261) were better than that of the hit compound with pIC50 of 7.5639 and gefitinib the positive control with pIC50 of 5.879426. The ligand-binding interaction between these newly designed EGFRWT inhibitors and the EGFR tyrosine kinase receptor as shown in Table 3 was investigated and elucidated using molecular docking protocol. Based on the molecular docking results, the binding affinities of these newly designed EGFRWT inhibitors were found to be between − 8.8 and − 9.5 kcal/mol. The designed compound SFD10 has the highest binding affinity of − 9.5 kcal/mol followed by compound SFD8 (with a binding affinity of − 9.3 kcal/mol), then by compound SFD9 and 4 (each with a binding affinity of − 9.3 kcal/mol). None of them was found to have more than one violation of the filtering criterion used in this study thereby showing good ADMET properties.

Conclusion

The modeled inhibitory activities and binding affinities of these newly designed EGFRWT inhibitors were found to be higher than that of the template compound and the control (gefitinib) used in this research. They were also seen to be non-toxic with good pharmacokinetic properties.

Pyrimidine-based EGFR TK inhibitors in targeted cancer therapy

Despite significant improvements of new treatment options, cancer continues to represent as one of the most common and fatal disease. The EGFR signaling pathway is considered as a significant approach in targeted therapy of cancers. Blocking the EGFR-driven pathway by inhibiting the intracellular tyrosine kinase domain of EGFR have shown considerable improvement in cancer therapy. In an effort to identify EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI), several small molecules especially pyrimidine containing derivatives have been designed by applying molecular simulation and evaluated the emergence of epigenetic mutation and resistance problems restricted the long-term effectiveness of such medication and explained the need for further investigations in this field. In recent years, the studies have been focused on genetic alterations on EGFR tyrosine kinase domain, which led to the design and synthesis of more selective and effective inhibitors. Herein, we give an overview of the importance and status of EGFR inhibitors in cancer therapy. In addition, we provide an update of the recent advances in design, discovery and development of novel pyrimidine containing compounds as promising selective EGFR TK inhibitors.

Discovery of Triazolo-pyridazine/-pyrimidine Derivatives Bearing Aromatic (Heterocycle)-Coupled Azole Units as Class II c-Met Inhibitors

Two series of novel triazolo-pyridazine/-pyrimidine derivatives were designed, synthesized, and evaluated for their inhibitory activity against c-Met kinase, as well as three c-Met overexpressed cancer cell lines (A549, MCF-7, and HeLa) and one normal human hepatocytes cell line LO2 in vitro. The pharmacological data indicated that most of the tested compounds showed moderate cytotoxicity, and the most promising compound 12e exhibited significant cytotoxicity against A549, MCF-7, and HeLa cell lines with IC₅₀ values of 1.06 ± 0.16, 1.23 ± 0.18, and 2.73 ± 0.33 μM, respectively. Moreover, the inhibitory activity of compound 12e against c-Met kinase (IC₅₀ = 0.090 μM) was equal to that of Foretinib (IC₅₀ = 0.019 μM). The result of the acridine orange (AO) single staining test demonstrated that compound 12e could remarkably induce apoptosis of A549 cells. The results of apoptosis and cycle distribution of cells showed that compound 12e could induce late apoptosis of A549 cells and stimulate A549 cells arresting in the G0/G1 phase. Structure-activity relationships (SARs), pharmacological results, and docking studies indicated that the introduction of 5-methylthiazole fragment to the five-atom moiety was beneficial for the activity. So far, the existing data indicated that compound 12e may become a potential class II c-Met inhibitor.

Role of Indole Scaffolds as Pharmacophores in the Development of Anti-Lung Cancer Agents

Lung cancer is the leading cause of death in men and women worldwide, affecting millions of people. Between the two types of lung cancers, non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is more common than small cell lung cancer (SCLC). Besides surgery and radiotherapy, chemotherapy is the most important method of treatment for lung cancer. Indole scaffold is considered one of the most privileged scaffolds in heterocyclic chemistry. Indole may serve as an effective probe for the development of new drug candidates against challenging diseases, including lung cancer. In this review, we will focus on discussing the existing indole based pharmacophores in the clinical and pre-clinical stages of development against lung cancer, along with the synthesis of some of the selected anti-lung cancer drugs. Moreover, the basic mechanism of action underlying indole based anti-lung cancer treatment, such as protein kinase inhibition, histone deacetylase inhibition, DNA topoisomerase inhibition, and tubulin inhibition will also be discussed.

Design, synthesis and biological evaluation of substituted 2-(thiophen-2-yl)-1,3,5-triazine derivatives as potential dual PI3Kα/mTOR inhibitors

The phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) and mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) have been regarded as promising targets for the treatment of cancer. Herein, we synthesized a new series of substituted 2-(thiophen-2-yl)-1,3,5-triazine derivatives as novel PI3Kα/mTOR dual inhibitors for cancer therapy. All compounds were evaluated for the IC₅₀ values against three cancer cell lines (A549, MCF-7 and Hela). Most of the target compounds exhibited moderate to excellent anti-tumor activities against these three tested cancer cell lines especially against A549 and Hela cancer cell lines. Among them, the most promising compound 13g showed excellent anti-tumor potency for A549, MCF-7 and Hela cell lines with IC₅₀ values of 0.20 ± 0.05 µM, 1.25 ± 0.11 µM and 1.03 ± 0.24 µM, respectively. Notably, according to the result of enzymatic activity assay, compound 13g was identified as a novel PI3Kα/mTOR dual inhibitor, which had an approximately 10-fold improvement in mTOR inhibition, compared to the class I PI3K inhibitor 1 (pictilisib, GDC-0941), with IC₅₀ values of 525 nM to 48 nM. And western blot analysis indicated compound 13g could efficiently suppress the phosphorylation of AKT at the dose of 0.1 µM, which further demonstrated compound 13g had significant inhibitory effect on the PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway. Furthermore, compound 13g could stimulate A549 cells arrest at G0/G1 phase in a dose-dependent manner, and induced apoptosis at a low concentration.