Design, Synthesis and Evaluation of New Indolylpyrimidylpiperazines for Gastrointestinal Cancer Therapy

Human A(3) adenosine receptor hA(3)AR has been implicated in gastrointestinal cancer, where its cellular expression has been found increased, thus suggesting its potential as a molecular target for novel anticancer compounds. Observation made in our previous work indicated the importance of the carbonyl group of amide in the indolylpyrimidylpiperazine (IPP) for its human A(2A) adenosine receptor (hA(2A)AR) subtype binding selectivity over the other AR subtypes. Taking this observation into account, we structurally modified an indolylpyrimidylpiperazine (IPP) scaffold, 1 (a non-selective adenosine receptors’ ligand) into a modified IPP (mIPP) scaffold by switching the position of the carbonyl group, resulting in the formation of both ketone and tertiary amine groups in the new scaffold. Results showed that such modification diminished the A(2A) activity and instead conferred hA(3)AR agonistic activity. Among the new mIPP derivatives (3–6), compound 4 showed potential as a hA(3)AR partial agonist, with an E(max) of 30% and EC(50) of 2.89 ± 0.55 μM. In the cytotoxicity assays, compound 4 also exhibited higher cytotoxicity against both colorectal and liver cancer cells as compared to normal cells. Overall, this new series of compounds provide a promising starting point for further development of potent and selective hA(3)AR partial agonists for the treatment of gastrointestinal cancers.