Synthesis and biological evaluation of novel histone deacetylases inhibitors with nitric oxide releasing activity.

ABSTRACT

A novel series of histone deacetylases inhibitors (HDACIs) containing benzofuroxan pharmacophore as nitric oxide (NO) donor were designed based on the combination principle and 'multifunctional drugs' theory. As a novel study on embedding NO donor into the structure of HDACIs, all designed hybrid compounds, especially 19d and 24d, displayed remarkable HDACs inhibitory activity and outstanding antiproliferative activity on tumor cells. Besides, they could produce high levels of NO in HCT-116 cells; furthermore, their antiproliferative activity on HCT-116 cells could be diminished by pretreatment with hemoglobin, as the NO scavenger, in a dose-dependent manner. All in all, our designed compounds displayed great inhibitory activities and might offer a prospective avenue to discover novel anti-cancer drugs.