Discovery of a series of hydroximic acid derivatives as potent histone deacetylase inhibitors

Abstract

To develop potent histone deacetylase inhibitors as antitumor agents, structural modification was performed. The synthesized molecules were tested by enzymatic inhibition assay and anti-proliferation assay. Several molecules show improved activities in the enzymatic inhibition assay. However, in the MTT assays, all these derived molecules have limited performance compared with SAHA. The IC50 values of molecule ((S)-N-(6-(hydroxyamino)-6-oxohexyl)-4-(3-(2-oxo-1-phenyl-2-((3-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl)amino)ethyl)ureido)benzamide, L8) which has the best enzymatic inhibition activity (with an IC50 value of 11.7nm and 967nm against Hela nucleus extract and HDAC8, respectively) were calculated compared with SAHA. Molecular docking was performed to predict the binding mode of molecule L8 in the active site of HDAC2 and HDAC8. Hydrophobic interaction, chelate binding, electrostatic attraction and H-bond interaction in combination make contribution to the ligand-receptor interactions. © 2014 Informa UK Ltd.