Twenty-four novel β-carboline/acylhydrazonehybrids were synthesized and evaluated for their in vitro antiproliferative activity. Among them, 12r exhibited the most potent activity, with IC50 values of 1–2 μM against panel of cancer cell lines and retained significant activity in multidrug resistant cancer cells. Treated cells were not arrested in any phase of cell cycle but resulted in late cellular
Sphingosine kinase (SphK)-catalyzed production of sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) regulates cell growth, survival and proliferation as well as inflammatory status in animals. In recent study we reported the N'-(3-(benzyloxy)benzylidene)-3,4,5-trihydroxybenzohydrazide scaffold as a potent SphK inhibitor. As a continuation of these efforts, 51 derivatives were synthesized and evaluated by SphK1/2 inhibitory activities for structure-activity relationship (SAR) study. Among them, 33 was identified as the most potent SphK inhibitor. Potency of 33 was also observed to efficiently decrease SphK1/2 expression in human colorectal cancer cells (HCT116) and significantly inhibit dextran sodium sulfate (DSS)-induced colitis as well as the decreased expression of interleukin (IL)-6 and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) in mouse models. Collectively, 33 was validated as an effective SphK inhibitor, which can be served as anti-inflammatory agent to probably treat inflammatory bowel diseases in human. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.