Discovery of novel dual VEGFR2 and Src inhibitors using a multistep virtual screening approach

  • Future Med Chem. 2017 Jan;9(1):7-24. doi: 10.4155/fmc-2016-0162.
Shangying Chen  1 Chu Qin  1 Jia En Sin  1 Xuan Yang  1 Lin Tao  1 Xian Zeng  1 Peng Zhang  1 Chun Mei Gao  2 Yu Yang Jiang  2 Cheng Zhang  3 Yu Zong Chen  1 Wai Keung Chui  1
Affiliations
  • 1. Department of Pharmacy, National University of Singapore, 18 Science Drive 4, Singapore 117543.
  • 2. Shenzhen Kivita Innovative Drug Discovery Institute & the Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology, Guangdong Province, The Graduate School at Shenzhen, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen, Guangdong, PR China.
  • 3. Department of Molecular Pharmacology & Experimental Therapeutics, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN 55902, USA.
Abstract

Aim: Simultaneous inhibition of VEGFR2 and Src may enhance the efficacy of VEGFR2-targeted Cancer therapeutics. Hence, development of dual inhibitors on VEGFR2 and Src can be a useful strategy for such treatments.

Materials & methods: A multistep virtual screening protocol, comprising ligand-based support vector machines method, drug-likeness rules filter and structure-based molecular docking, was developed and employed to identify dual inhibitors of VEGFR2 and Src from a large commercial chemical library. Kinase inhibitory assays and cell viability assays were then used for experimental validation.

Results: A set of compounds belonging to six different molecular scaffolds was identified and sent for biological evaluation. Compound 3c belonging to the 2-amino-3-cyanopyridine scaffold exhibited good antiproliferative effect and dual-target activities against VEGFR2 and Src.

Conclusion: This study demonstrated the ability of the multistep virtual screening approach to identify novel multitarget agents.

Keywords
2-amino-3-cyanopyridines; Src; Surflex–Dock; VEGFR2; cancer; combinatorial support vector machines; drug discovery; molecular docking; multikinase inhibitors; virtual screening.
Products