ABSTRACT
In the course of synthesizing and testing various "azole-including" cyclic anhydrides in the Castagnoli-Cushman reaction with imines, a remarkably reactive, pyrrole-based anhydride has been identified. It displayed a remarkably efficient reaction with N-alkyl and N-aryl imines, in particular, with "enolizable" α-C-H imines which typically fail to react with a majority of known cyclic anhydrides. The reactivity of this anhydride has been justified by an efficient resonance stabilization of its enol form. This finding expands the existing arsenal of highly reactive cyclic anhydrides and further confirms the importance of anhydride enolization for an efficient Castagnoli-Cushman reaction.
ABSTRACT
Five lactam chemotypes amenable by the Castagnoli-Cushman reaction of imines and cyclic anhydrides have been investigated for their ability to activate p53 tumor suppressing transcription factor thus induce apoptosis in p53+ cancer cells. A virtual library of 1.07 million chemically diverse compounds based on these scaffolds was subjected to in silico screening first. The compounds displaying high docking score were visually prioritized to identify the best-fitting compounds, i. e. the ones which adequately mimic the interactions of clinical candidate inhibitor Nutlin-3a. These 38 compounds were synthesized and tested for apoptosis induction in p53+ H116 cancer cells to identify 9 potent apoptosis-inducers (two of them exceeding the activity of Nutlin-3a) which belonged to four different chemotypes. The activation of p53 involved in the proapoptotic activity observed was supported by effective induction of EGFP expression in human osteocarcinoma U2OS-pLV reporter cell line. Moreover, the two most potent apoptosis inducers displayed antiproliferative profile identical to several known advanced p53 activators: they inhibited the growth of p53+/+ HCT116 cells in much lower concentration range compared to p53-/- HCT116 cells.
Subject(s)
Antineoplastic Agents/pharmacology , Apoptosis/drug effects , Lactams/pharmacology , Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-mdm2/metabolism , Tumor Suppressor Protein p53/metabolism , Acetates/pharmacology , Antineoplastic Agents/chemical synthesis , Chemistry Techniques, Synthetic/methods , Drug Design , Green Fluorescent Proteins/metabolism , HCT116 Cells , High-Throughput Screening Assays , Humans , Imidazoles/pharmacology , Indoles/pharmacology , Lactams/chemical synthesis , Molecular Docking Simulation , Piperazines/pharmacology , Piperidones/pharmacology , Protein Binding/drug effects , Small Molecule Libraries , Spiro Compounds/pharmacologyABSTRACT
Significant expansion of heterocyclic product space accessible by the Castagnoli-Cushman reaction (CCR) has been achieved via the use of glutaric anhydride analogues containing endocyclic substitutions with oxygen, nitrogen, and sulfur. Incorporation of these heteroatoms in the anhydride's backbone results in enhanced reactivity and generally lower temperatures that are required for the reactions to go to completion. These findings are particularly significant in light of the CCR recently recognized as an efficient tool for lead-oriented synthesis.