5-Hydroxy-7-azaindolin-2-one, a novel hybrid of pyridinol and sunitinib: design, synthesis and cytotoxicity against cancer cells

Org Biomol Chem. 2016 Jun 7;14(21):4829-41. doi: 10.1039/c6ob00406g. Epub 2016 May 5.

Abstract

Angiogenesis plays important roles in tumor growth and metastasis. Sunitinib (Sutent®) is an antitumor agent targeting receptor tyrosine kinases which are involved in angiogenesis as well as cancer cell growth and survival. Using the pyridin-3-ol scaffold, which was previously reported as an excellent antioxidant and antiangiogenic platform, we have synthesized sunitinib mimics 6 by hybridizing bicyclic pyridinol 4 as a key scaffold and pyrrole-2-carbaldehydes 7 as side chains. Cytotoxicity assays showed that compounds 6 have comparable to better anticancer activity than sunitinib against five different cancer cell lines. In addition, compounds 6 showed even lower levels of cytotoxicity against normal cells, resulting in up to 26-fold better safety windows, than sunitinib. Signaling pathway-associated transcription factor reporter assay and western blot analyses revealed that apoptosis induction in MDA-MB-231 human breast cancer cells by 6F is mainly mediated through the p53 increase and down-regulation of phospho-signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) and its target gene products, cyclin D, Bcl-2, and survivin. The data strongly suggest that our hybrid compounds can provide a novel anticancer scaffold with improved and safer cytotoxicity profiles than sunitinib.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Antineoplastic Agents / chemical synthesis*
  • Antineoplastic Agents / chemistry
  • Antineoplastic Agents / pharmacology*
  • Apoptosis / drug effects
  • Cell Line, Tumor
  • Cell Proliferation / drug effects
  • Chemistry Techniques, Synthetic
  • Down-Regulation / drug effects
  • Drug Design
  • Humans
  • Indoles / chemical synthesis*
  • Indoles / chemistry
  • Indoles / pharmacology*
  • Protein Transport / drug effects
  • Pyridines / chemistry*
  • Pyrroles / chemistry*
  • STAT3 Transcription Factor / metabolism
  • Signal Transduction / drug effects
  • Sunitinib
  • Tumor Suppressor Protein p53 / metabolism

Substances

  • 5-hydroxy-7-azaindolin-2-one
  • Antineoplastic Agents
  • Indoles
  • Pyridines
  • Pyrroles
  • STAT3 Transcription Factor
  • Tumor Suppressor Protein p53
  • Sunitinib