Structure based drug design and in vitro metabolism study: Discovery of N-(4-methylthiophenyl)-N,2-dimethyl-cyclopenta[d]pyrimidine as a potent microtubule targeting agent
DOI
10.1016/j.bmc.2018.04.010
Document Type
Journal Article
Publication Date
5-15-2018
Publication Title
Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry
Volume
26
Issue
9
First Page
2437
Last Page
2451
ISSN
9680896
Keywords
Cyclopenta[d]pyrimidine, Metabolism, Microtubule targeting agent
Abstract
We report a series of tubulin targeting agents, some of which demonstrate potent antiproliferative activities. These analogs were designed to optimize the antiproliferative activity of 1 by varying the heteroatom substituent at the 4?-position, the basicity of the 4-position amino moiety, and conformational restriction. The potential metabolites of the active compounds were also synthesized. Some compounds demonstrated single digit nanomolar IC50 values for antiproliferative effects in MDA-MB-435 melanoma cells. Particularly, the S-methyl analog 3 was more potent than 1 in MDA-MB-435 cells (IC50 = 4.6 nM). Incubation of 3 with human liver microsomes showed that the primary metabolite of the S-methyl moiety of 3 was the methyl sulfinyl group, as in analog 5. This metabolite was equipotent with the lead compound 1 in MDA-MB-435 cells (IC50 = 7.9 nM). Molecular modeling and electrostatic surface area were determined to explain the activities of the analogs. Most of the potent compounds overcome multiple mechanisms of drug resistance and compound 3 emerged as the lead compound for further SAR and preclinical development.
Open Access
Green Accepted
Preprint
Repository Citation
Xiang, W., Choudhary, S., Hamel, E., Mooberry, S., & Gangjee, A. (2018). Structure based drug design and in vitro metabolism study: Discovery of N-(4-methylthiophenyl)-N,2-dimethyl-cyclopenta[d]pyrimidine as a potent microtubule targeting agent. Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry, 26 (9), 2437-2451. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bmc.2018.04.010