Synthesis and biological evaluation of novel (E)-N'-benzylidene hydrazides as novel c-Met inhibitors through fragment based virtual screening

C-Met plays a crucial role in the development and progression of neoplastic disease. Type II c-Met inhibitors recognise the inactive DFG-out conformation of the kinase, result in better anti-tumour effects due to synergistic effect against the other kinases. According to our previous works, an (E)-N'-benzylidene group was selected as the initial fragment. Two series of (E)-N'-benzylidene hydrazides were designed by fragment growth method. The inhibitory activities were in vitro investigated against c-Met and VEGFR-2. Compound 10b exhibited the most potent inhibitory activity against the c-Met inhibitor (IC(50) = 0.37 nM). Compound 11b exhibited multi-target c-Met kinase inhibitory activity as a potential type II c-Met inhibitor (IC(50) = 3.41 nM against c-Met; 25.34 nM against VEGFR-2). The two compounds also demonstrate the feasibility of fragment-based virtual screening method for drug discovery.