Design, synthesis and biological evaluation of novel 3,4,5-trisubstituted aminothiophenes as inhibitors of p53-MDM2 interaction. Part 2.

Five series of novel 3,4,5-trisubstituted aminothiophene derivatives and analogs were designed and synthesized based on our previous studies. All target compounds were evaluated for their p53-MDM2 binding inhibitory activities and anti-proliferation activities against A549 and PC3 tumor cell lines. Twelve compounds displayed comparable p53-MDM2 binding inhibitory activities to that of Nutlin-3. Among them, compound 7a exhibited marked binding affinity (IC50=0.086 μM). In addition, most target compounds showed potent anti-proliferation activities with IC50 values at low micromolar level. A good selective profile for wild-type p53 expression cell line was also observed. Molecular docking analysis was performed as well to predict possible binding modes of target compounds with MDM2.