Arylidenes of Quinolin-2-one scaffold as Erlotinib analogues with activities against leukemia through inhibition of EGFR TK/ STAT-3 pathways

A new series of 6-substiuted 4 (2-(4-substituted-benzylidene)hydrazinyl)quinolin-2(1H)-one derivatives have been designed and synthesized. The structure of the synthesized compounds was proved by H-1 NMR, C-13 NMR, 2D NMR, mass and elemental analyses. The target compounds were evaluated for their in vitro cytotoxic activity against 60 cancer cell lines according to NCI protocol. Consequently, the most active compounds were further examined against the most sensitive leukemia RPMI-8226 and on healthy cell lines. 6-Chloro-derivative was the most active one; with IC50 = 15.72 +/- 1.21 and 46.05 +/- 2.36 mu M against RPMI-8226 and normal cell lines, respectively. Also, it showed a remarkable inhibitory activity compared to gefitinib on the EGFR TK mutant, wild and on H-RAS in addition to STAT-3 with IC50 = 695.49 +/- 21.8, 263.15 +/- 15.13, 10.61 +/- 0.27 and 1.753 +/- 0.81 nM, respectively. Cell cycle analysis of RPMI-8226 cells treated with the 6-chloro-derivative showed cell cycle arrest at G2/M phase (supported by Caspases-3,8, BAX and Bcl-2 studies) with a significant pro-apoptotic activity as indicated by annexin V-FITC staining. Moreover, the docking studies ROCS analysis and Tanimoto scores supported the results. The study illustrated the effect of several factors on compounds activity.