Structure-Activity Relationship Study of 1-Pyrrole-3-carbonitrile Derivatives as STING Receptor Agonists.

The use of small agonists to target stimulators of interferon genes (STING) has been demonstrated to be a promising strategy for the treatment of various cancers and infectious diseases. Herein, we discovered a series of 1-pyrrole-3-carbonitrile derivatives as potential STING agonists. On this basis, the structure-activity relationship of this scaffold was studied by introducing various substituents on the aniline ring system. Representative compounds , , and all displayed comparable activities to the reported STING agonist SR-717 in binding various hSTING alleles and induced reporter signal in human THP1 cell lines. Model compound induced phosphorylation of TBK1, IRF3, p65, and STAT3 in a STING-dependent fashion and stimulated the expression of target genes , , and in a time-dependent manner in human THP1 cells. Our findings afforded a series of novel STING agonists with promising potential.