Design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of novel alkylsulfanyl-1,2,4-triazoles as cis-restricted combretastatin A-4 analogues

  • Eur J Med Chem. 2017 Jan 5:125:1098-1106. doi: 10.1016/j.ejmech.2016.10.051.
Yan-Hong Li  1 ,  Bei Zhang  1 ,  Hai-Kui Yang  1 ,  Qiu Li  1 ,  Peng-Cheng Diao  1 ,  Wen-Wei You  2 ,  Pei-Liang Zhao  3
Affiliations
  • 1. Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of New Drug Screening, School of Pharmaceutical Science, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, PR China.
  • 2. Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of New Drug Screening, School of Pharmaceutical Science, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, PR China. Electronic address: [email protected].
  • 3. Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of New Drug Screening, School of Pharmaceutical Science, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, PR China. Electronic address: [email protected].
PMID: 27810596 DOI: 10.1016/j.ejmech.2016.10.051
Abstract

Thirty-two novel 3-alkylsulfanyl-1,2,4-triazole derivatives, designed as cis-restricted combretastatin A-4 analogues, were synthesized and evaluated for their antiproliferative activities. The results indicated that analogue 20 showed more potent antiproliferative activities against PC-3 cell lines than positive control CA-4. Particularly, the most promising compound 25 displayed 5-fold improvement compared to CA-4 in inhibiting HCT116 cell proliferation with IC50 values of 1.15 μM. Further flow-activated cell sorting analysis revealed that compound 20 displayed a significant effect on G2/M cell-cycle arrest in a dose-dependent manner in PC-3 cells. From this study, analogues 20 and 25 were the most potent anti-cancer agents in this structural class, and were considered lead compounds for further development as anti-cancer drugs.

Keywords
Alkylsulfanyl-1,2,4-triazoles; Antiproliferative activity; Synthesis.