1-Benzyl-2-methyl-3-indolylmethylene barbituric acid derivatives: Anti-cancer agents that target nucleophosmin 1 (NPM1)
作者:Narsimha Reddy Penthala、Amit Ketkar、Konjeti R. Sekhar、Michael L. Freeman、Robert L. Eoff、Ramesh Balusu、Peter A. Crooks
DOI:10.1016/j.bmc.2015.10.019
日期:2015.11
In the present study, we have designed and synthesized a series of 1-benzyl-2-methyl-3-indolylmethylene barbituric acid analogs (7a-7h) and 1-benzyl-2-methyl-3-indolylmethylene thiobarbituric acid analogs (7i-7l) as nucleophosmin 1 (NPM1) inhibitors and have evaluated them for their anti-cancer activity against a panel of 60 different human cancer cell lines. Among these analogs 7i, 7j, and 7k demonstrated potent growth inhibitory effects in various cancer cell types with GI(50) values < 2 mu M. Compound 7k exhibited growth inhibitory effects on a sub-panel of six leukemia cell lines with GI(50) values in the range 0.22-0.35 mu M. Analog 7i also exhibited GI(50) values < 0.35 mu M against three of the leukemia cell lines in the sub-panel. Analogs 7i, 7j, 7k and 7l were also evaluated against the mutant NPM1 expressing OCI-AML3 cell line and compounds 7k and 7l were found to cause dose-dependent apoptosis (AP(50) = 1.75 mu M and 3.3 mu M, respectively). Compound 7k also exhibited potent growth inhibition against a wide variety of solid tumor cell lines: that is, A498 renal cancer (GI(50) = 0.19 mu M), HOP-92 and NCI-H522 lung cancer (GI(50) = 0.25 mu M), COLO 205 and HCT-116 colon cancer (GI(50) = 0.20 and 0.26 mu M, respectively), CNS cancer SF-539 (GI(50) = 0.22 mu M), melanoma MDA-MB-435 (GI(50) = 0.22 mu M), and breast cancer HS 578T (GI(50) = 0.22 mu M) cell lines. Molecular docking studies suggest that compounds 7k and 7l exert their anti-leukemic activity by binding to a pocket in the central channel of the NPM1 pentameric structure. These results indicate that the small molecule inhibitors 7i, 7j, 7k, and 7l could be potentially developed into anti-NPM1 drugs for the treatment of a variety of hematologic malignancies and solid tumors. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.