An anthraquinone scaffold for putative, two-face Bim BH3 α-helix mimic.

Bim BH3 peptide features an α-helix with hotspot residues on multiple faces. Compound 5 (6-bromo-2,3-dihydroxyanthracene-9,10-dione), which adopts a rigid-plan amphipathic conformation, was designed and evaluated as a scaffold to mimic two faces of Bim α-helix. It reproduced the functionalities of both D67 and I65 on two opposing helical sides. Moreover, it maintained the two-faced binding mode during further evolution. A putative BH3 α-helix mimic and nanomolar Bcl-2/Mcl-1 dual inhibitor, 6, was obtained based on the structure of 5.