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

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