Design, synthesis and biological evaluation of 2-arylaminopyrimidine derivatives bearing 1,3,8-triazaspiro[4,5]decan-4-one or piperidine-3-carboxamide moiety as novel Type-I1/2 ALK inhibitors.

Aiming to develop novel Type-I1/2 inhibitors of ALK to overcome extensive resistance mutations, especially the L1196M mutation surrounding the ATP pocket, two series of 2-arylaminopyrimidine derivatives (11a-f and 22a-t) were designed based on scaffold hopping. The extensive structural elaboration discovered compound 22o which possessed excellent IC50 values of 0.06 and 0.23 µM against ALK-positive Karpas299 and H2228 cell lines, respectively. Meanwhile, 22o displayed encouraging inhibitory potency in the ALKWT (2.5 nM) and ALKL1196M (6.5 nM) enzymatic assays. Furthermore, the AO/EB and Hoechst 33258 assays illustrated 22o could induce cell apoptosis in a dose-dependent manner. Eventually, the molecular docking of 22o with ALK clearly presented the vital interactions within the active site, which was in accordance with Type-I1/2 inhibitor binding mode.

Design, synthesis and anti-inflammatory evaluation of novel pyrrolo[2,3-d]pyrimidin derivatives as potent JAK inhibitors.

Aiming to develop potent JAK inhibitors, two series of 4-(1H-pyrazol-4-yl)-7H-pyrrolo[2,3-d]pyrimidine derivatives (8a-8p and 11a-11i) were designed and synthesized by coalescing various N-acylpiperidine motifs with baricitinib. The pharmacological results based on enzymatic and cellular assays identified the optimized compound 11e, which exerted over 90% inhibition rates against JAK1 and JAK2, and displayed the most compelling anti-inflammatory efficacy superior to baricitinib by inhibiting NO generation from LPS-induced RAW264.7 macrophages. Importantly, low cytotoxity of 11e was revealed by the IC50 value of 88.2 µM against normal RAW264.7 cells. The binding mode of 11e with JAK1 and JAK2 identified the essential structural bases in accord with SARs analysis. Furthermore, cellular morphology observation and western blot analysis disclosed the ability of 11e to relieve cells inflammatory damage by significantly down-regulating LPS-induced high expression of JAK1, JAK2, as well as pro cytokine IL-1ß. Together, 11e was verified as a promising lead for JAK inhibitors for the treatment of inflammatory diseases.

Discovery and optimization of tetrahydropyrido[4,3-d]pyrimidine derivatives as novel ATX and EGFR dual inhibitors.

In order to discovery autotaxin (ATX) and EGFR dual inhibitors with potential therapeutic effect on IPF-LC, a series of novel tetrahydropyrido[4,3-d]pyrimidine derivatives possessing semicarbazones moiety were designed and synthesized. The preliminary investigation at the cellular level indicated six compounds (7h, 8a, 8c, 8d, 9a and 9d) displayed preferable anti-tumor activities against A549, H1975, MKN-45 and SGC cancer cells. Further enzymatic assay against EGFR kinase identified 8a and 9a as promising hits with IC50 values of 18.0 nM and 24.2 nM. Meanwhile, anti-inflammatory assessment against cardiac fibroblasts (CFs) cell and RAW264.7 macrophages led to the discovery of candidate 9a, which exhibited considerable potency both on inhibition rate of 77% towards CFs and on reducing NO production to 1.05 µM at 10 µg/mL. Simultaneously, 9a indicated preferable potency towards ATX with IC50 value of 29.1 nM. Significantly, a RT-PCR study revealed the function of 9a to down-regulate the mRNA expression of TGF-ß and TNF-α in a dose-dependent manner. The molecular docking analysis together with the pharmacological studies validated 9a as a potential ATX and EGFR dual inhibitor for IPF-LC treatments.

Design, synthesis and biological evaluation N2-(2-alkyoxy-6-aliphatic aminopyridin-3-yl)-2,4-diaminepyrimidine derivatives bearing acylamino or DBTD 'head' as potential ALK inhibitors.

Aiming to develop promising ALK inhibitors, two series of N2-(2-alkyoxy-6-aliphatic aminopyridin-3-yl)-2,4-diaminepyrimidine derivatives (22a-x and 23a-d) were designed according to scaffold hopping and bioisosterism principles. All compounds were efficiently synthesized by concise reactions and anti-proliferative activities on ALK-addicted H2228, Karpas299 cells and EGFR-expressive A549 cell were evaluated by MTT assay. Several compounds exhibited potential cytotoxic activities with IC50 values below 0.10 µM. Five compounds (22g, 22h, 22l, 22s and 23a) were selected for further enzymatic determination, resulting in the discovery of 22l against ALK and ALKL1196M with IC50 values of 2.1 nM and 3.8 nM. Particularly, western blot and cell apoptosis assays identified 22l as a promising ALK inhibitor, which was capable of obviously inhibiting cellular ALK activity and inducing cell apoptosis. Eventually, molecular docking modes of 22l with ALK confirmed structural basis in accordance with the SARs analysis.

Discovery of novel mutant-combating ALK and ROS1 dual inhibitors bearing imidazolidin-2-one moiety with reasonable PK properties.

Aiming to identify novel potent ALK and ROS1 dual inhibitors, the relatively bulky piperidine fragment in ceritinib was replaced with substituted imidazolidin-2-one moiety which gave rise to a series of 2,4-diaryl-aminopyrimidine (DAAP) analogs (6-33). SAR studies were conducted based on cellular assays on five cell lines and most compounds exerted moderated to excellent activities. Among them, 15 showed excellent inhibitory activities against ROS1 and ALK positive cell lines, especially Ba/F3G1202R, with IC50 values ranging from 14 to 37 nM. As a continuation, several compounds were tested in enzymatic assays and 15 displayed encouraging activities against wild-type ALK (1.2 nM), ROS1(0.43 nM) as well as extremely resistant ALKL1196M and ALKG1202R mutants with IC50 values of 0.73 nM and 6.7 nM, respectively. To our delight, both cellular and enzymatic results of 15 were in good accordance with western blot assays on H2228 and HCC78 cell lines. Importantly, pharmacokinetic (PK) profiles of 15 were obtained with quite satisfying AUC and Cmax values. Besides, the binding models of 15 with ALKWT, ALKG1202R and ROS1 clearly present the essential interactions within the active site.