Synthesis and biological activity of fluorinated combretastatin analogues

J Med Chem. 2008 May 8;51(9):2708-21. doi: 10.1021/jm701362m. Epub 2008 Apr 9.

Abstract

With the aim of understanding the influence of fluorine on the double bond of the cis-stilbene moiety of combretastatin derivatives and encouraged by a preliminary molecular modeling study showing a different biological environment on the interaction site with tubulin, we prepared, through various synthetic approaches, a small library of compounds in which one or both of the olefinic hydrogens were replaced with fluorine. X-ray analysis on the difluoro-CA-4 analogue demonstrated that the spatial arrangement of the molecule was not modified, compared to its nonfluorinated counterpart. SAR analysis confirmed the importance of the cis-stereochemistry of the stilbene scaffold. Nevertheless, some unpredicted results were observed on a few trans-fluorinated derivatives. The position of a fluorine atom on the double bond may affect the inhibition of tubulin polymerization and cytotoxic activity of these compounds.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Antineoplastic Agents / chemical synthesis*
  • Antineoplastic Agents / chemistry
  • Antineoplastic Agents / pharmacology
  • Bibenzyls / chemical synthesis*
  • Bibenzyls / chemistry
  • Bibenzyls / pharmacology
  • Biopolymers
  • Cattle
  • Cell Line, Tumor
  • Cells, Cultured
  • Crystallography, X-Ray
  • Drug Screening Assays, Antitumor
  • Endothelial Cells / cytology
  • Endothelial Cells / drug effects
  • Fluorine*
  • Humans
  • Microcirculation / cytology
  • Microtubules / drug effects
  • Microtubules / metabolism
  • Microtubules / ultrastructure
  • Stereoisomerism
  • Stilbenes / chemical synthesis*
  • Stilbenes / chemistry
  • Stilbenes / pharmacology
  • Structure-Activity Relationship
  • Tubulin / metabolism

Substances

  • Antineoplastic Agents
  • Bibenzyls
  • Biopolymers
  • Stilbenes
  • Tubulin
  • Fluorine
  • combretastatin