Diaryl Urea: A Privileged Structure in Anticancer Agents.

The diaryl urea is an important fragment/pharmacophore in constructing anticancer molecules due to its near-perfect binding with certain acceptors. The urea NH moiety is a favorable hydrogen bond donor, while the urea oxygen atom is regarded as an excellent acceptor. Many novel compounds have been synthesized and evaluated for their antitumor activity with the successful development of sorafenib.

Multi-kinase inhibitors.

The limitations of many mono-kinase inhibitors can be overcome by agents with multi-target action. An important advantage of targeting more than one kinase, is an increase in potency, due to the synergistic effect. Moreover, this approach can reduce the possibility of developing drug resistance.

Benzimidazole derivatives as kinase inhibitors.

Benzimidazole is a common kinase inhibitor scaffold and benzimidazole-based compounds interact with enzymes by multiple binding modes. In some cases, the benzimidazole acts as part of the hinge-binding motif, in others it has a scaffolding role without evidence for direct hinge binding. Several of these compounds are ATP-competitive inhibitors and show high selectivity by exploiting unique structural properties that distinguish one kinase from the majority of other kinases.

Small molecule aurora kinases inhibitors.

Aurora kinases represent one of the emerging targets in oncology drug discovery. These kinases play important role in centrosome maturation, chromosome separation and cytokinesis. They are overexpressed in a broad range of tumor cell lines and human primary tumors; thus, their inhibition may open up new opportunities to develop novel anti-cancer agents.

Synthetic small molecule Cdc25 phosphatases inhibitors.

Inhibition of Cdc25 phosphatases is a strategy for the discovery and development of novel anticancer agents targeting the cell cycle. A number of potent small molecule Cdc25 inhibitors have been identified. They are derived from different chemical classes; the most potent and selective derivatives are quinones.

Nitrogen-containing heterocyclic quinones: a class of potential selective antitumor agents.

The development of prodrugs that are enzymatically activated into anticancer agents is a promising perspective in cancer therapy. Many nitrogen-containing quinoid heterocycles have been reported to show antitumor effect. The principal interest in these compounds lies on their potential to produce tumor-selective toxicity.

Differential antiproliferative activity of new benzimidazole-4,7-diones.

Ten benzimidazole-4,7-diones were synthesized and tested in vitro on two tumor cell lines. Several compounds showed a significant antiproliferative activity on K562 cells, although to a different extent, whereas compound 1i showed a highly significant activity on SW620 cells, comparable to that of doxorubicin. Both the substituents in the quinone ring and the position of the nitrogen atom in the pyridine moiety play a crucial role for the biological activity.

Synthesis and antiviral/antiproliferative activity of some N-sulphonylbenzimidazoles.

Some benzimidazolyl sulphones were synthesized and evaluated for their antiviral and antiproliferative properties. Compound 10 displayed significant and selective activity against human cytomegalovirus (CMV), compound 14 showed activity against varicella zoster virus (VZV). The compounds were further evaluated for inhibitory effect on the proliferation of murine leukemia cells and human T-lymphocyte cells.