Design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of new pyrimidine-5-carbonitrile derivatives as novel anti-cancer, dual EGFR(WT)/COX-2 inhibitors with docking studies

A novel series of pyrimidine-5-carbonitrile derivatives was designed, synthesized, then evaluated for their cytotoxic activity as novel anti-cancer with dual EGFR(WT)/COX-2 inhibitors. Two compounds 4e and 4f disclosed the highest activity against all NCI60 panel cell lines. They were most potent against Colo 205 (IC(50) = 1.66, and 1.83 μM), Sequentially. The most potent two compounds disturbed cell cycle of Colo-205 cells by blocking the G1 phase, coupled with increased annexin-Vstained cells which indicated the increasing in percentage of apoptosis. In addition, 4e and 4f increase the concentration of caspase-3 by 10, and 8-fold compared to control, respectively. Moreover, the two candidate compounds were screened for cytotoxicity on normal epithelial colon cells; fortunately, they were found to be safe. Molecular docking study displayed that these compounds bound to the active site as EGFR(WT)/COX-2 inhibitors. Furthermore, 3D pharmacophore mapping disclosed many shared features between the most potent candidates 4e and 4f and the standard EGFR(WT)/COX-2 inhibitors; erlotinib, and celecoxib, respectively. Finally, the physicochemical parameter was calculated for the most potent novel anticancer candidates and the SwissAdme parameter showed that the newly synthesized compounds have good drug-likeness properties.