Design, synthesis and biological evaluation of bisindole derivatives as anticancer agents against Tousled-like kinases.

This study presents the design, synthesis, and characterization of bisindole molecules as anti-cancer agents against Tousled-like kinases (TLKs). We show that compound 2 composed of an indirubin-3'-oxime group linked with a (N-methylpiperidin-2-yl)ethyl moiety possessed inhibitory activity toward both TLK1 and TLK2 in vitro and diminished the phosphorylation level of the downstream substrate anti-silencing function 1 (ASF1) in replicating cells. The treatment of compound 2 impaired DNA replication, slowed S-phase progression, and triggered DNA damage response in replicating cells. Structure optimization further discovered six derivatives exhibiting potent TLK inhibitory activity and revealed the importance of the tertiary amine-containing moiety of the side chain. Moreover, the derivatives 6, 17, 19, and 20 strongly suppressed the growth of triple-negative breast cancer MDA-MB-231 cells, non-small cell lung cancer A549 cells, and colorectal cancer HCT-116 cells, while normal lung fibroblast MRC5 and IMR90 cells showed a lower response to these compounds. Taken together, this study identifies tertiary amine-linked indirubin-3'-oximes as potent anticancer agents that inhibit TLK activity.

Retraction notice to "Design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of heterotetracyclic quinolinone derivatives as anticancer agents targeting topoisomerases" [Eur. J. Med. Chem. 190 (2020) 112074].

This article has been retracted: please see Elsevier Policy on Article Withdrawal (https://www.elsevier.com/about/our-business/policies/article-withdrawal). This article has been retracted at the request of the authors. The authors regret to inform that they would like to withdraw this accepted article, due to serious errors in authorship, affiliations, material sources and supporting grant names/numbers. The authors sincerely apologize for these oversights and miscommunications the study caused.

Design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of heterotetracyclic quinolinone derivatives as anticancer agents targeting topoisomerases.

A series of thiochromeno[2,3-c]quinolin-12-one derivatives with various substitutions were synthesized and evaluated as topoisomerase (Topo) inhibitors. Six (8, 10, 12, 14, 19, and 26) of 23 compounds showed strong inhibitory activities against Topo-mediated DNA relaxation and proliferation of five human cell lines including breast (MDA-MB-231, MDA-MB-468 and MCF7), colorectal (HCT116) and non-small cell lung (H1299) cancers. Among these, compounds 14 and 26 exhibited full inhibitory activities against Topo I at 3 µM and Topo IIα at 1 µM. Cancer cells treated with 26 accumulated DNA damage and were arrested at the G2/M phase. With time, cells proceeded to apoptosis, as revealed by increased amounts of cells with fragmented DNA and cleavage of caspase-8 and -9. In contrast, normal breast epithelial cells showed low sensitivity to 26. Taken together, our study identifies 26 as a potent Topo dual-inhibitor with low toxicity to normal cells, and elucidates that the terminal amino group of N-2-aminoethylamino or N-3-aminopropylamino at the 6th position and 8,10-di-halogen substituents on thiochromeno[2,3-c]quinolin-12-one are critical for the Topo-inhibiting and cancer-killing activities.