Indoline ureas as potential anti-hepatocellular carcinoma agents targeting VEGFR-2: Synthesis, in vitro biological evaluation and molecular docking

In our effort to develop potent and effective agents with anti-proliferative activity towards HepG2 hepatocellular carcinoma cells with potential inhibitory activity against VEGFR-2, a novel series of 1-(4-((2oxoindolin-3-ylidene)amino)phenyl)-3-arylureas was designed and synthesized. All the newly prepared ureas 9a-x were evaluated in vitro for their anti-proliferative activity against HepG2 hepatocellular carcinoma cell line. Compounds 9a-c, 9e, 9f, 9j, 9m-o, 9t-v and 9x exhibited good activity against HepG2 cancer cells (IC50 = 1.22 +/- 0.11-8.37 +/- 0.85 mu M) comparable to that of doxorubicin and sorafinib (IC50 = 2.90 +/- 0.36 and 3.40 +/- 0.25 mu M, respectively). These thirteen compounds were further evaluated for their inhibitory activity against VEGFR-2. Compound 9x emerged as the most active counterpart against VEGFR-2 with IC50 value of 031 +/- 0.04 mu M. Furthermore, a molecular docking of the tested compounds was carried out in order to investigate their binding pattern with the prospective target, VEGFR-2 (PDB-code: 4ASD). (C) 2015 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.