Design, Synthesis, and Pharmacological Evaluation of Novel Multisubstituted Pyridin-3-amine Derivatives as Multitargeted Protein Kinase Inhibitors for the Treatment of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Abstract

A novel series of pyridin-3-amine derivatives were designed, synthesized, and evaluated as multitargeted protein kinase inhibitors for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Hit 1 was first disclosed by in silico screening against fibroblast growth factor receptors (FGFR), which was subsequently validated by in vitro experiments. The structure-activity relationship (SAR) of its analogues was then explored to afford novel FGFR inhibitors 2a-2p and 3a-3q. Among them, 3m showed potent inhibition against FGFR1, 2, and 3. Interestingly, compound 3m not only inhibited various phosphorylation and downstream signaling across different oncogenic forms in FGFR-overactivated cancer cells but also showed nanomolar level inhibition against several other NSCLC-related oncogene kinases, including RET, EGFR, EGFR/T790M/L858R, DDR2, and ALK. Finally, in vivo pharmacology evaluations of 3m showed significant antitumor activity (TGI = 66.1%) in NCI-H1581 NSCLC xenografts with a good pharmacokinetic profile.