Design, synthesis and biological evaluation of c-Met kinase inhibitors bearing 2-oxo-1,2-dihydroquinoline scaffold

A series of 2-oxo-1,2-dihydroquinoline-containing c-Met inhibitors were designed, synthesized and evaluated for their in vitro activities targeting c-Met. Most compounds showed high potency against c-Met with IC50 values in the single-digit nM range. Among these compounds, two target compounds, namely 1h and 1n, stood out as the most potent c-Met inhibitors with IC50s of 0.6 and 0.7nM, respectively. And 1a exhibited higher potency than BMS-777607 did with respect to the inhibition of cell proliferation. The introduction of electron-donating substituent was favorable for the activities of the compounds to some extent. Furthermore, molecular docking studies also gave encouraging results that supported this work.