Synthesis and PGE₂ production inhibition of s-triazine derivatives as a novel scaffold in RAW 264.7 macrophage cells.

We present the synthesis and biological evaluation of a collection of s-triazine derivatives as a novel scaffold of compounds with the capability to inhibit the PGE₂ production in LPS-induced RAW 264.7 macrophage cells. A total of 12 derivatives were synthesized and assayed for PGE₂ reduction at 10 μM concentration. Two compounds (7b and 7i) exhibiting >90% inhibition of PGE₂ production were found to have IC₅₀ values of 5.76 and 5.52 μM, respectively. They were counter screened for inhibition on COX-2 activity in a cell free assay. Specifically, compound 7i (R¹ = 4-Bn-Ph, R² = Cl, R³ = Ph, R⁵ = CO₂Me) was highly active in cells while maintaining little COX-2 inhibition (∼0% at 10 μM). Molecular docking study provides the possibility that compound 7i could inhibit PGE₂ production by blocking the PGH₂ binding site of mPGES-1 instead of COX-2 enzyme. Based on this result, our synthetic efforts will focus on intensive structure-activity relationship (SAR) study of s-triazine scaffold to discovery a potential PGE₂ synthesis inhibitor.