Design and synthesis of 2-(4,5,6,7-tetrahydrothienopyridin-2-yl)-benzoimidazole carboxamides as novel orally efficacious Poly(ADP-ribose)polymerase (PARP) inhibitors.

The nuclear protein poly(ADP-ribose) polymerases-1/2 (PARP-1/2) are involved in DNA repair damaged by endogenous or exogenous process. And PARP-1/2 inhibitors have been proved to be clinically efficacious for DNA repair deficient tumors in the past decade. We have developed a series of 4,5,6,7-tetrahydrothienopyridin-2-yl benzimidazole carboxamides as novel and potent PARP-1/2 inhibitors. The best compound resulted from this series is compound 27 which displays excellent PARP-1 and PARP-2 inhibitory activity with IC50 of 18 nM and 42 nM, respectively. Furthermore, it can selectively kill BRCA2 deficient V-C8 cells with a CC50 of 920 nM. In the MDA-MB-436 (BRCA-1 mutant) xenograft model, this compound was well tolerated and showed single-agent activity. Based on the results above, compound 27 has been selected as a lead candidate targeting PARP-1/2 and its preclinical characterization is also underway.