Synthesis, antitumor evaluation and microarray study of some new pyrazolo[3,4-d][1,2,3]triazine derivatives

Abstract

Design and synthesis of new anticancer scaffolds; pyrazolo[3,4-d][1,2,3]triazine derivatives, is a promising solution to overcome drug resistance problem. A series of (E)-2-cyano-N-(aryl)-3-methylthio-3-(substituted-amino)acrylamides 3a-e was synthesized and transformed to the 3-aminopyrazole derivatives 4a-e which were then transformed to the target pyrazolotriazinones 6a-e. All compounds were evaluated for their anticancer activity against three different cancer cell lines namely Huh-7, Panc-1 and CCRF. Compounds 3a, 3c, 6a and 6c showed excellent anticancer activity against Huh-7 cell line (IC50: 4.93–8.84 μM vs doxorubicin 5.43 μM). Similarly, compounds 6a and 6d showed excellent activities against Panc-1 cells (IC50: 9.91 μM and 4.93 μM vs doxorubicin 6.90 μM). Caspase-Glo 3/7 assay was done and the results revealed that the pro-apoptotic activity of the target compounds could be due to the stimulation of caspases 3/7. Microarray experiment for Huh-7 cells treated with 6c was performed to search for other molecular changes. SLC26A3, UGT1A1, UGT2B15, UGT2B7, DNASE1, MUCDH1 and UGT2B17 were among the up-regulated genes, while, GIP3, TAGL, THBS1, IFI27, FSCN1 and SOCS2 were among the most extensively down-regulated genes. These genes belong to apoptosis, metabolism, cell cycle, tumor growth and suppressor genes. Finally, pyrazolo[3,4-d][1,2,3]triazine derivatives could be potent anticancer drugs in the future.