Design, synthesis and docking study of novel picolinamide derivatives as anticancer agents and VEGFR-2 inhibitors

  • Eur J Med Chem. 2019 Apr 15:168:315-329. doi: 10.1016/j.ejmech.2019.02.050.
Mohamed A Zeidan  1 ,  Amany S Mostafa  2 ,  Rania M Gomaa  2 ,  Laila A Abou-Zeid  3 ,  Mohamed El-Mesery  4 ,  Magda A-A El-Sayed  1 ,  Khalid B Selim  5
Affiliations
  • 1. Department of Pharmaceutical Organic Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Mansoura University, Mansoura, 35516, Egypt; Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Horus University, New Dammeitta, Egypt.
  • 2. Department of Pharmaceutical Organic Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Mansoura University, Mansoura, 35516, Egypt.
  • 3. Department of Pharmaceutical Organic Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Mansoura University, Mansoura, 35516, Egypt; Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Delta University, Gamsaa, Egypt.
  • 4. Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Mansoura University, Mansoura, 35516, Egypt.
  • 5. Department of Pharmaceutical Organic Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Mansoura University, Mansoura, 35516, Egypt. Electronic address: [email protected].
PMID: 30826508 DOI: 10.1016/j.ejmech.2019.02.050
Abstract

Two series of picolinamide derivatives bearing (thio)urea and dithiocarbamate moieties were designed and synthesized as VEGFR-2 kinase inhibitors. All the new compounds were screened for their cytotoxic activity against A549 Cancer cell line and VEGFR-2 inhibitory activity. Compounds 7h, 9a and 9l showed potent inhibitory activity against VEGFR-2 kinase with IC50 values of 87, 27 and 94 nM, respectively in comparison to sorafenib (IC50 = 180 nM) as a reference. Compounds 7h, 9a and 9l were further screened for their antitumor activity against specific resistant human Cancer cell lines from different origins (Panc-1, OVCAR-3, HT29 and 786-O cell lines) where compound 7h showed significant cell death in most of them. Multi-kinase inhibition assays were performed for the most potent VEGFR-2 inhibitors where compound 7h showed enhanced potency towards EGFR, HER-2, c-MET and Mer kinases. Cell cycle analysis of A549 cells treated with 9a showed cell cycle arrest at G2/M phase and pro-apoptotic activity as indicated by annexin V-FITC staining.

Keywords
A549; Apoptosis; Binding DFG motif; Cell cycle analysis; Kinase inhibition; Picolinamide; VEGFR-2.