Synthesis and biological evaluations of 8-biaryl-2,2-dimethylbenzopyranamide derivatives against Alzheimer's disease and ischemic stroke.

Alzheimer's disease, the commonest cause of dementia, is a growing global health concern with huge implications for individuals and society. Stroke has still been a significant challenge in clinics for a long time, which is the second leading cause of death in the world, especially ischemic stroke. Both Alzheimer's disease and stroke are closely related to oxidative stress and HIF-1 signaling pathways in nerve cells. Herein, we describe our structure-based design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of a new class of 8-biaryl-2,2-dimethylbenzopyranamide derivatives as natural product derivatives. Our efforts have resulted in the discovery of highly potent neuroprotective agents, as exemplified by compound D13 as a HIF-1α inhibitor, which significant improvement in the behavior of Alzheimer's disease mice and shows great potential improvement of brain infarct volume in pMCAO model rats, improves the increase of blood-brain barrier permeability after cerebral ischemia in rats, neuroprotective effect, reduce the level of apoptotic cells in rats after cerebral ischemia, better than Edaravone.

2,2- dimethylbenzopyran derivatives containing pyridone structural fragments as selective dual-targeting inhibitors of HIF-1α and EZH2 for the treatment of lung cancer.

We formerly reported that EZH2 inhibitors sensitized HIF-1 inhibitor-resistant cells and inhibited HIF-1α to promote SUZ12 transcription, leading to enhanced EZH2 enzyme activity and elevated H3K27me3 levels, and conversely, inhibition of EZH2 promoted HIF-1α transcription. HIF-1α and EZH2 interacted to form a negative feedback loop that reinforced each other's activity. In this paper, a series of 2,2- dimethylbenzopyran derivatives containing pyridone structural fragments were designed and synthesized with DYB-03, a HIF-1α inhibitor previously reported by our group, and Tazemetostat, an EZH2 inhibitor approved by FDA, as lead compounds. Among these compounds, D-01 had significant inhibitory activities on HIF-1α and EZH2. In vitro experiments showed that D-01 significantly inhibited the migration of A549 cells, clone, invasion and angiogenesis. Moreover, D-01 had good pharmacokinetic profiles. All the results about compound D-01 could lay a foundation for the research and development of HIF-1α and EZH2 dual-targeting compounds.

Design and Synthesis of Dual-Targeting Inhibitors of sEH and HDAC6 for the Treatment of Neuropathic Pain and Lipopolysaccharide-Induced Mortality.

Epoxyeicosatrienoic acids with anti-inflammatory effects are inactivated by soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH). Both sEH and histone deacetylase 6 (HDAC6) inhibitors are being developed as neuropathic pain relieving agents. Based on the structural similarity, we designed a new group of compounds with inhibition of both HDAC6 and sEH and obtained compound M9. M9 exhibits selective inhibition of HDAC6 over class I HDACs in cells. M9 shows good microsomal stability, moderate plasma protein binding rate, and oral bioavailability. M9 exhibited a strong analgesic effect in vivo, and its analgesic tolerance was better than gabapentin. M9 improved the survival time of mice treated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and reversed the levels of inflammatory factors induced by LPS in mouse plasma. M9 represents the first sEH/HDAC6 dual inhibitors with in vivo antineuropathic pain and anti-inflammation.

Structure-Directed Discovery of Potent Soluble Epoxide Hydrolase Inhibitors for the Treatment of Inflammatory Diseases.

Soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH) has been identified as an attractive target for anti-inflammatory drug design in recent years. Picomolar level compound G1 against sEH was obtained by introducing the hydrophilic group homopiperazine and hydrophobic fragment propionyl onto the structure of lead compound A. G1 showed good microsomal stability, a moderate plasma protein binding rate, and good oral bioavailability and was well tolerated in rats. G1 has significant analgesic effects on CFA-induced AIA mice, ameliorated the pancreatic injury in acute pancreatitis induced by l-arginine, reversed pancreatic injury, edema, and neutrophil infiltration, and increased the survival time of C57BL/6 mice in a lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced sepsis model. Moreover the expression levels of sEH, COX-2, NOS-2, vascular cell adhesion molecule (VCAM), IL-6, MCP-5, and tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α) were measured by Western blot or enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), with varying degrees of decrease. These results suggested that G1 is a drug candidate worthy of further evaluation for the treatment of inflammation-induced diseases such as arthritis, acute pancreatitis, and sepsis.