Scaffold hopping and redesign approaches for quinazoline based urea derivatives as potent VEGFR-2 inhibitors

Soha R Abd El Hadi; Deena S Lasheen; Dalia H Soliman; Eman Z Elrazaz; Khaled A M Abouzid

doi:10.1016/j.bioorg.2020.103961

Scaffold hopping and redesign approaches for quinazoline based urea derivatives as potent VEGFR-2 inhibitors

Bioorg Chem. 2020 Aug:101:103961. doi: 10.1016/j.bioorg.2020.103961. Epub 2020 May 26.

Authors

Soha R Abd El Hadi¹, Deena S Lasheen², Dalia H Soliman³, Eman Z Elrazaz², Khaled A M Abouzid⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Egyptian Russian University, P.O. Box 11829, Badr City, Cairo, Egypt. Electronic address: soha-ramadan@eru.edu.eg.
² Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Ain Shams University, P.O. Box 11566, Abbassia, Cairo, Egypt.
³ Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Egyptian Russian University, P.O. Box 11829, Badr City, Cairo, Egypt; Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Al Azhar University, P.O. Box 11471, Cairo, Egypt.
⁴ Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Ain Shams University, P.O. Box 11566, Abbassia, Cairo, Egypt; Department of Organic and Medicinal Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Sadat City, Sadat City 32897, Egypt. Electronic address: khaled.abouzid@pharma.asu.edu.eg.

PMID: 32480170
DOI: 10.1016/j.bioorg.2020.103961

Abstract

In our attempt to discover effective anticancer agents, three series of novel quinazoline-based compounds have been designed, synthesized and tested as VEGFR-2 inhibitors. Five quinazoline -2-carboxamide derivatives (5d, 5e, 5 h, 5i, 5j) revealed potent nanomolar VEGFR-2 inhibition with IC₅₀ values of 12.1, 40.3, 15.5, 13.1 and 57.4 nM, respectively, superior to that of the reference drug sorafenib (IC₅₀ 78.9 nM). Additionally, the quinazoline 2-carboxylate derivative bearing a fluorine substituent in middle ring (7a) showed IC₅₀ values of 14.8 nM. Most of the new synthesized compounds are examined on NCI sixty cell lines of human cancer cells. Furthermore, molecular modeling study was administered to realize any clarification of the binding mode in the inactive VEGFR-2 conformation that demonstrates compatible binding modes similar to those of sorafenib and regorafenib. Finally, several ADME descriptors were calculated through a predictive kinetic study.

Keywords: ADME; Docking study; Inhibitory activity; Quinazoline; VEGFR-2.

MeSH terms

Cell Line, Tumor
Cell Proliferation / drug effects
Humans
Quinazolines / chemistry
Quinazolines / pharmacology*
Urea / chemistry
Urea / pharmacology*
Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Receptor-2 / metabolism*

Substances

Quinazolines
Urea
Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Receptor-2