Novel pyrrolo[2,3-d]pyrimidine derivatives as multi-kinase inhibitors with VEGFR-2 selectivity

Since the discovery of imatinib, the first tyrosine kinase inhibitor, in 2001, targeted therapy has become mainstream of cancer therapeutics. Despite the advantages in efficacy and low side effects compared with conventional chemotherapy, the success of the targeted anticancer drugs is still limited by the drug resistance which happens due to the fact that the development of cancer is stimulated by several stimuli and therefore, defeating cancer may occur upon the inhibition of several targets. However, coadministration of multiple drugs always lead to many disadvantages including increased toxicity and less patient compliance. Therefore, the aim of research is to develop anticancer agents with multi-target action based on the modification of the chemical structure of sunitinib, a well-known multi-kinase inhibitor. A series of fifteen compounds comprising pyrrolo [2,3-d]pyrimidine and hydrazone have been designed and successfully synthesized. Among the synthesized compounds, compounds 6f, 6l and 6n inhibited the enzymatic activity of EGFR, Her2, VEGFR-2 and CDK2 kinase enzymes similar to sunitinib and the reference protein kinase inhibitors. Interestingly, remarkable results were revealed by compounds 6j and 6c that demonstrated selective VEGFR-2 inhibition activities and compound 6i that exhibited selective dual inhibition of Her2/VEGFR-2 enzymes. Further analysis revealed that compounds 6f and 6n suppressed cell cycle progression of HepG2 cells and induced early and late apoptosis. Moreover, those two compounds triggered a significant elevation in caspase 3 and Bax proapoptotic proteins and a notable reduction in Bcl-2 anti-apoptotic protein. Finally, molecular docking studies were conducted to predict the possible binding interactions of 6f and 6n with CDK2 and 6f, 6n, 6j and 6c with VEGFR-2. & COPY; 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of King Saud University. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).