Design, synthesis and biological evaluation of chalcone derivatives as potent and orally active hCYP3A4 inhibitors

Shiwei Lu; Feng Zhang; Jiahao Gong; Jian Huang; Guanghao Zhu; Yitian Zhao; Qi Jia; Yiming Li; Bo Li; Kaixian Chen; Weiliang Zhu; Guangbo Ge

doi:10.1016/j.bmcl.2023.129435

Design, synthesis and biological evaluation of chalcone derivatives as potent and orally active hCYP3A4 inhibitors

Bioorg Med Chem Lett. 2023 Oct 15:95:129435. doi: 10.1016/j.bmcl.2023.129435. Epub 2023 Aug 6.

Authors

Shiwei Lu¹, Feng Zhang², Jiahao Gong², Jian Huang³, Guanghao Zhu², Yitian Zhao¹, Qi Jia², Yiming Li², Bo Li⁴, Kaixian Chen⁵, Weiliang Zhu⁶, Guangbo Ge⁷

Affiliations

¹ School of Pharmacy, Institute of Interdisciplinary Integrative Medicine Research, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai 201203, China; State Key Laboratory of Drug Research; Drug Discovery and Design Center, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 555 Zuchongzhi Road, Shanghai, 201203, China.
² School of Pharmacy, Institute of Interdisciplinary Integrative Medicine Research, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai 201203, China.
³ Pharmacology and Toxicology Division, Shanghai Institute of Food and Drug Control, Shanghai, China.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Drug Research; Drug Discovery and Design Center, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 555 Zuchongzhi Road, Shanghai, 201203, China; School of Pharmacy, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, No.19A Yuquan Road, Beijing 100049, China. Electronic address: boli@simm.ac.cngegu.
⁵ School of Pharmacy, Institute of Interdisciplinary Integrative Medicine Research, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai 201203, China; State Key Laboratory of Drug Research; Drug Discovery and Design Center, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 555 Zuchongzhi Road, Shanghai, 201203, China; School of Pharmacy, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, No.19A Yuquan Road, Beijing 100049, China.
⁶ State Key Laboratory of Drug Research; Drug Discovery and Design Center, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 555 Zuchongzhi Road, Shanghai, 201203, China; School of Pharmacy, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, No.19A Yuquan Road, Beijing 100049, China. Electronic address: wlzhu@simm.ac.cn.
⁷ School of Pharmacy, Institute of Interdisciplinary Integrative Medicine Research, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai 201203, China. Electronic address: geguangbo@shutcm.edu.cn.

PMID: 37549850
DOI: 10.1016/j.bmcl.2023.129435

Abstract

Human cytochrome P450 3A4 (hCYP3A4), one of the most important drug-metabolizing enzymes, catalyze the metabolic clearance of ∼50% therapeutic drugs. CYP3A4 inhibitors have been used for improving the in vivo efficacy of hCYP3A4-substrate drugs. However, most of existing hCYP3A4 inhibitors may trigger serious adverse effects or undesirable effects on endogenous metabolism. This study aimed to discover potent and orally active hCYP3A4 inhibitors from chalcone derivatives and to test their anti-hCYP3A4 effects both in vitro and in vivo. Following three rounds of screening and structural optimization, the isoquinoline chalcones were found with excellently anti-hCYP3A4 effects. SAR studies showed that introducing an isoquinoline ring on the A-ring significantly enhanced anti-CYP3A4 effect, generating A10 (IC₅₀ = 102.10 nM) as a promising lead compound. The 2nd round of SAR studies showed that introducing a substituent group at the para position of the carbonyl group on B-ring strongly improved the anti-CYP3A4 effect. As a result, C6 was identified as the most potent hCYP3A4 inhibitor (IC₅₀ = 43.93 nM) in human liver microsomes (HLMs). C6 also displayed potent anti-hCYP3A4 effect in living cells (IC₅₀ = 153.00 nM), which was superior to the positive inhibitor ketoconazole (IC₅₀ = 251.00 nM). Mechanistic studies revealed that C6 could potently inhibit CYP3A4-catalyzed N-ethyl-1,8-naphthalimide (NEN) hydroxylation in a competitive manner (K_i = 30.00 nM). Moreover, C6 exhibited suitable metabolic stability in HLMs and showed good safety profiles in mice. In vivo tests demonstrated that C6 (100 mg/kg, orally administration) significantly increased the AUC_(0-inf) of midazolam by 3.63-fold, and strongly prolonged its half-life by 1.66-fold compared with the vehicle group in mice. Collectively, our findings revealed the SARs of chalcone derivatives as hCYP3A4 inhibitors and offered several potent chalcone-type hCYP3A4 inhibitors, while C6 could serve as a good lead compound for developing novel, orally active CYP3A4 inhibitors with improved druglikeness properties.

Keywords: Cytochrome P450 3A4 (CYP3A4); Inhibitors; Isoquinoline chalcones; Orally active.