Design, synthesis and biological evaluation of novel morpholinopyrimidine-5-carbonitrile derivatives as dual PI3K/mTOR inhibitors.

In this study, novel morpholinopyrimidine-5-carbonitriles were designed and synthesized as dual PI3K/mTOR inhibitors and apoptosis inducers. The integration of a heterocycle at position 2, with or without spacers, of the new key intermediate 2-hydrazinyl-6-morpholinopyrimidine-5-carbonitrile (5) yielded compounds 6-10, 11a-c and 12a-h. The National Cancer Institute (USA) tested all compounds for antiproliferative activity. Schiff bases, 12a-h analogs, were the most active ones. The most promising compounds 12b and 12d exhibited excellent antitumor activity against the leukemia SR cell line, which is the most sensitive cell line, with IC50 0.10 ± 0.01 and 0.09 ± 0.01 µM, respectively, along with significant effects on PI3Kα/PI3Kß/PI3Kδ with IC50 values of 0.17 ± 0.01, 0.13 ± 0.01 and 0.76 ± 0.04 µM, respectively, for 12b and 1.27 ± 0.07, 3.20 ± 0.16 and 1.98 ± 0.11, respectively, for 12d compared to LY294002. Compared to Afinitor, these compounds inhibited mTOR with IC50 values of 0.83 ± 0.05 and 2.85 ± 0.17 µM, respectively. Annexin-V and propidium iodide (PI) double labeling showed that compounds 12b and 12d promote cytotoxic leukemia SR apoptosis. Compounds 12b and 12d also caused a G2/M cell cycle arrest in the leukaemia SR cell line. The findings of this study indicate that the highest effect was observed for 12b, which was supported by western blot and docking analysis.

Synthesis and cytotoxic activity of certain benzothiazole derivatives against human MCF-7 cancer cell line.

A new series of benzothiazole has been synthesized as cytotoxic agents. The new derivatives were tested for their cytotoxic activity toward the human breast cancer MCF-7 cell line against cisplatin as the reference drug. Many derivatives revealed good cytotoxic effect, whereas four of them, 4, 5c, 5d, and 6b, were more potent than cisplatin, with IC50 values being 8.64, 7.39, 7.56, and 5.15 µm compared to 13.33 µm of cisplatin. The four derivatives' cytotoxic activity was accompanied by regulating free radicals production, by increasing the activity of superoxide dismutase and depletion of intracellular reduced glutathione, catalase, and glutathione peroxidase activities, accordingly, the high production of hydrogen peroxide, nitric oxide, and other free radicals causing tumor cell death as monitored by reduction in the synthesis of protein and nucleic acids. Most of the tested compounds showed potent to moderate growth inhibitory activity; in particular, compound 6b exhibited the highest activity suggesting it is a lead compound in cytotoxic activity.