Design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of tetrahydroisoquinoline-based diaryl urea derivatives for suppressing VEGFR-2 signaling

A novel structural series of tetrahydroisoquinoline-based compounds that incorporate the diaryl urea moiety was designed, synthesized, and biologically evaluated as suppressors of VEFGR-2 signaling. As a consequence, compounds 9k and 9s exhibited comparable or superior cytotoxic activity to that of gefitinib against the tested three cell lines, including A549, MCF-7, and PC-3. Importantly, both of them downregulated the expression of VEGFR-2, and inhibited VEGFR-2 phosphorylation at the concentration of 0.5 or 1.0 μmol/l. Besides, they suppressed human umbilical vein endothelial cell tube formation at the concentration of 4.0 μmol/l. Considering their capability of down-regulating VEGFR-2 expression and inhibiting VEGFR-2 phosphorylation, 9k and 9s may serve as suppressors of angiogenesis for further investigation. Correspondence to Jiaming Li, PhD, School of Pharmacy, Anhui University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Hefei 230031, China Tel: +86 137 0569 4971; e-mail: lijiaming2017@sina.com Received May 7, 2018 Accepted October 30, 2018 Copyright © 2018 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.

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