Synthesis, antitumour activities and molecular docking of thiocarboxylic acid ester-based NSAID scaffolds: COX-2 inhibition and mechanistic studies.
J Enzyme Inhib Med Chem 2018;
33:989-998. [PMID:
29806488 PMCID:
PMC6009944 DOI:
10.1080/14756366.2018.1474878]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
A new series of NSAID thioesters were synthesized and evaluated for their in vitro antitumor effects against a panel of four human tumor cell lines, namely: HepG2, MCF-7, HCT-116 and Caco-2, using the MTT assay. Compared to the reference drugs 5-FU, afatinib and celecoxib, compounds 2b, 3b, 6a, 7a, 7b and 8a showed potent broad-spectrum antitumor activity against the selected tumour cell lines. Accordingly, these compounds were selected for mechanistic studies about COX inhibition and kinase assays. In vitro COX-1/COX-2 enzyme inhibition assay results indicated that compounds 2b, 3b, 6a, 7a, 7b, 8a and 8 b selectively inhibited the COX-2 enzyme (IC50 = ∼0.20–0.69 μM), with SI values of (>72.5–250) compared with celecoxib (IC50 = 0.16 μM, COX-2 SI: > 312.5); however, all the tested compounds did not inhibit the COX-1 enzyme (IC50 > 50 μM). On the other hand, EGFR, HER2, HER4 and cSrc kinase inhibition assays were evaluated at a 10 μM concentration. The selected candidates displayed limited activities against the various tested kinases; the compounds 2a, 3b, 6a, 7a, 7b and 8a showed no activity to weak activity (% inhibition = ∼0–10%). The molecular docking study revealed the importance of the thioester moiety for the interaction of the drugs with the amino acids in the active sites of COX-2. The aforementioned results indicated that thioester based on NSAID scaffolds derivatives may serve as new antitumor compounds.
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