New Approaches for the Uses of Cyclohexan-1,4-dione for the Synthesis of 5,6,7,8-tetrahydrobenzo[4,5]thieno[2,3-b]pyridine Derivatives used as Potential Anti-prostate Cancer Agents and Pim-1 Kinase Inhibitors

Tailored horseshoe-shaped nicotinonitrile scaffold as dual promising c-Met and Pim-1 inhibitors: Design, synthesis, SAR and in silico study

For the horseshoe tactic to succeed in inhibiting c-Met and Pim-1, the nicotinonitrile derivatives (2a-n) were produced in high quantities by coupling acetyl phenylpyrazole (1) with the proper aldehydes and ethyl cyanoacetate under basic conditions. Consistent basic and spectroscopic data (NMR, IR, Mass, and HPLC) supported the new products' structural findings. With IC50 potency in nanomolar ranges, these compounds had effectively repressed them, particularly compounds 2d and 2 h, with IC50 values below 200 nM. The most potent compounds (2d and 2 h) were tested for their antitumor effects against prostate (PC-3), colon (HCT-116), and breast (MDA-MB-231) and were evaluated in comparison to the anticancer drug tivantinib using the MTT assay. Similar to tivantinib, these compounds showed good antiproliferative properties against the HCT-116 tumor cells while having low cytotoxicity towards healthy fetal colon (FHC) cells. In the HCT-116 cell line, their ability to trigger the apoptotic cascade was also investigated by looking at the level of Bax and Bcl-2 as well as the activation of the proteolytic caspase cascade. When HCT-116 cells were exposed to compounds 2d and 2 h in comparison to the control, active caspase-3 levels increased. The HCT-116 cell line also upregulated Bcl-2 protein levels and downregulated Bax levels. Additionally, when treated with compound 2d, the HCT-116 cell cycle was primarily stopped at the S phase. Compared to the control, compound 2d treatment significantly inhibited the protein expression levels of c-Met and Pim-1 kinases in the treated HCT-116 cells. Thorough molecular modeling analyses, such as molecular docking and dynamic simulation, were performed to ascertain the binding mechanism and stability of the target compounds.

Targeting PIM kinases in cancer therapy: An update on pharmacological small-molecule inhibitors

PIM kinases, a serine/threonine kinase family with three isoforms, has been well-known to participate in multiple physiological processes by phosphorylating various downstream targets. Accumulating evidence has recently unveiled that aberrant upregulation of PIM kinases (PIM1, PIM2, and PIM3) are closely associated with tumor cell proliferation, migration, survival, and even resistance. Inhibiting or silencing of PIM kinases has been reported have remarkable antitumor effects, such as anti-proliferation, pro-apoptosis and resensitivity, indicating the therapeutic potential of PIM kinases as potential druggable targets in many types of human cancers. More recently, several pharmacological small-molecule inhibitors have been preclinically and clinically evaluated and showed their therapeutic potential; however, none of them has been approved for clinical application so far. Thus, in this perspective, we focus on summarizing the oncogenic roles of PIM kinases, key signaling network, and pharmacological small-molecule inhibitors, which will provide a new clue on discovering more candidate antitumor drugs targeting PIM kinases in the future.

Design, synthesis, and cytotoxicity evaluation of novel thiophene, pyrimidine, pyridazine, and pyridine: Griseofulvin heterocyclic extension derivatives

Griseofulvin, an antifungal drug, has also shown good antiproliferative activity previously. This study was aimed to synthesize heterocyclic extension derivatives of griseofulvin and test them against cancer cell lines. Griseofulvin was hydrolyzed to afford griseofulvic acid (1) followed by hybridization with important heterocyclic moieties. Initially, the active methylene group of the 1,3-cyclohexanedione moiety in 1 was utilized to synthesize fused thiophene derivatives (4a and b) by reacting with malononitrile or ethyl cyanoacetate together with elemental sulfur. Compounds 4a and b were further converted to fused pyrimidine derivatives (5a–d) using ethyl isothiocyanate or phenyl isothiocyanate. Compound 1 was also reacted with aryldiazonium chlorides to synthesize compounds 6a and b, which were used to prepare fused thiophene derivatives (7a–d). The resulting thiophenes (7a–d) underwent cyclization to produce fused pyridazine derivatives (8a–d). In addition, fused pyridine derivatives (10a and b) were also prepared by the reaction of 4a and b with ethyl cyanoacetate using two different catalytic bases. The first was triethylamine to form 10a and b in two steps via 9a and b, and the second was sodium ethoxide to afford 10a and b in one step. Finally, 9a and b underwent cyclization in the presence of acetylacetone to yield compounds 11a and b. The structures of synthesized compounds were confirmed using IR, 1H NMR, 13C NMR, and mass spectrometry techniques. The synthesized compounds were subjected to cytotoxic screening against three tumor cell lines and presented good to excellent cytotoxic profiles. Compounds 4a and 11a showed significant inhibitory activity against the three cell lines compared to the standard drug doxorubicin.

Design, Synthesis, Molecular Docking and Biological Studies of New Heterocyclic Compounds Derived from -Diketonesas Novel EGFR and Pim-1 Inhibitors Endowed with Antitumor Activity

BACKGROUND

Cancer is a disease illustrated by a shift in the controlled mechanisms that control both cell proliferation and differentiation. It is regarded as a prime health problem worldwide, leading cause of human death-rate exceeded only by cardiovascular diseases. Many reported work was concerned with the discovery of new antitumor compounds this encourage us to synthesis new anticancer agents.

OBJECTIVE

In this work, we are aiming to synthesize target molecules from 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds through many heterocyclization reactions.

METHOD

The reaction of either 4-methylaniline (1a) or 1-naphthylamine (1b) with diethyl malonate (2) gave the anilide derivatives 3a and 3b, respectively. The latter products underwent a series of heterocyclization reactions to give the pyridine, pyran andthiazole derivatives which confirmed with the required spectral data.

RESULTS

Thein-vitro antitumor evaluations of the newly synthesized products against four cancer cell lines MCF-7, NCI-H460, SF-268 and WI 38 as normal cell line were screened and the data revealed that compounds 11a, 18b, 18c and 20d showed high antitumor activity and 20dindividualize with potential antitumor activity towards cell lines with lowest cytotoxicity effect. Both EGFR and PIM-1 enzyme inhibition were investigated for the compound 20d and his inhibition effect was promising for each enzyme showing IC50=45.67 ng and 553.3 ng for EGFR and PIM-1, respectively.

CONCLUSION

Molecular docking results of compound 20d showed a strong binding interactions on both enzymes, where, good binding modes obtained on case of EGFR, which closely similar to the binding mode of standard Erlotinib. While, 20d showed complete superimposition binding interactions with VRV-cocrystallized ligand of PIM-1 that may expounds the in-vitro antitumor activity.