•A series of arylsulfonamides were synthesized as PI3K/mTOR inhibitors.•A two-step structure-based optimization led to the discovery of 13b.•The 13b showed potent broad-spectrum cytotoxic activities and superior PK profiles.•The 13b showed higher potency and less toxicity in vivo than GSK2126458.The phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) family is one of the most frequently activated enzymes in a wide range of human cancers; thus, inhibition of PI3K represents a promising strategy for cancer therapy. Herein, a series of benzylamine substituted arylsulfonamides were designed and synthesized as dual PI3K/mTOR inhibitors using a strategy integrating focused library design and virtual screening, resulting in the discovery of 13b (NSC765844). The compound 13b exhibits highly potent enzyme inhibition with IC50s of 1.3, 1.8, 1.5, 3.8 and 3.8 nM for PI3Kα, β, γ, δ, and mTOR, respectively. 13b was further evaluated in NCI by an in vitro cytotoxic screening program. Broad-spectrum antitumor activities with mean GI50 value of 18.6 nM against approximately 60 human tumor cell lines were found. 13b displayed favorable physicochemical properties and superior pharmacokinetic profiles for animal studies. It significantly inhibited tumor growth when administered orally in an A549 non-small-cell lung carcinoma xenograft and BEL7404 human hepatocellular carcinoma xenograft models. On the basis of its excellent in vivo efficacy and superior pharmacokinetic profiles, 13b has been selected for further preclinical investigation as a promising anticancer drug candidate.

The phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)/protein kinase B (AKT)/mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathway is related to cellular activities. Abnormalities of this signaling pathway were discovered in various cancers, including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The PI3K/mTOR dual inhibitors were proposed to have enhanced antitumor efficacies by targeting multiple points of the signaling pathway. We synthesized a series of propynyl-substituted benzenesulfonamide derivatives as PI3K/mTOR dual inhibitors. Compound 7k (NSC781406) was identified as a highly potent dual inhibitor, which exhibited potent tumor growth inhibition in the hepatocellular carcinoma BEL-7404 xenograft model. Compound 7k may be a potential therapeutic drug candidate for HCC.

The luteolin from Flos Chrysanthemi was found to directly bind to the Bcl-2 protein and inhibit the tumor cell growth in our previous study. However, it has been shown to possess wide and week biological activities. In this study, a series of derivatives of luteolin were designed and synthesized, and their tumor cell growth inhibitory activities were evaluated against human leukemia cell line HL-60. The results showed that compounds 1B-2, 2A-3, and 2B-5, with hydrophobic substituted benzyl groups introduced to B ring and hydrogen or methyl introduced to 7-OH group of luteolin, exhibited the strongest inhibitory activity with the IC50 lower than 10 μM, which were significantly more potent than luteolin. The studies presented here offer a good example for modifications of flavones to improve their tumor cell growth inhibitory activities.

The anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 proteins are attractive targets for anti-cancer drug development, and the discovery of their selective inhibitors has become a research focus. In this Letter, obvious differences in the P1 pocket of the active site between Bcl-2, Bcl-xL, and Mcl-1 proteins were proposed by the structural comparison of these proteins. As a result, the groups in their inhibitors binding to the P1 pockets may have significant effect on the selectivity for these proteins. Based on this hypothesis, five types of derivatives of the lead compound B-1 were designed, and several highly selective inhibitors of Bcl-xL (E-1) or Mcl-1 proteins (G) were found. The selective inhibitors of Mcl-1 protein found in this Letter provide new structural types for the development of novel antitumor agents.

On the basis of the comparison of the structure of the Bim BH3: Bcl-xL complex and that of the ABT-737: Bcl-xL complex, a series of class A compounds were designed. These compounds had the basic skeleton of ABT-737 and the h2 residues of Bim BH3. These residues had shown themselves to be relevant to Bim BH3’s broad-spectrum binding properties in saturation mutagenesis assays. Unlike ABT-737, which is a selective inhibitor of anti-apoptotic members of the Bcl-2 protein family, the class A compounds showed broad-spectrum binding activity to target proteins similar to those of Bim BH3 peptide. Then class B compounds were synthesized by modifying the structure of the most effective class A compound, A-4. Most of these class B compounds showed better binding affinity to the target proteins than the class A compounds had. They also showed themselves more effective than ABT-737 at inhibiting growth in multiple tumor cell lines known to express Bcl-xL, Bcl-2, and Mcl-1 proteins at high levels. Compounds B-11 and B-12 had the strongest anti-tumor activity of any compounds we produced. This study suggests that it is feasible to design small-molecule inhibitors based on the structure of Bim BH3, which shows broad-spectrum binding to Bcl-xL, Bcl-2, and Mcl-1 proteins. Our results also suggest that the broad-spectrum properties of small-molecule inhibitors binding to target proteins play a critical role in inhibiting the growth of many tumor cells. Finally, our study provides a series of lead compounds that merit further research into anti-cancer therapeutics.A series of class A compounds which have the basic skeleton of ABT-737 and the h2 residues of Bim BH3 were designed, and showed broad-spectrum binding activity to target proteins similar to that of Bim BH3 peptide. Then class B compounds were synthesized by modifying the structure of the most effective class A compound, A-4, and showed better binding affinity to the target proteins.

A series of novel pyrazino[2,1-a]isoquinolin compounds were designed and synthesized, and their antifungal activities in vitro were evaluated. The results showed that all of the compounds exhibited antifungal activities. Some of them exhibited stronger antifungal activities than that of lead compounds and among them compound 11b was the most potent one, which showed more potent than that of the active control fluconazole to the four of the five tested fungi. The studies presented here provide a new structural type for the development of novel antifungal agents.The mode of action of compound 13a with the active site of CYP51 of Candida albicans is reported.