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Cellular mesenchymal-epithelial transition factor (c-MET) is closely linked to human malignancies, which makes it an important target for treatment of cancer. In this study, a series of 3-methoxy-N-phenylbenzamide derivatives, N-(3-(tert-butyl)-1-phenyl-1H-pyrazol-5-yl) benzamide derivatives and N1-(3-fluoro-4-methoxyphenyl)-N3-(4-fluorophenyl) malonamide derivatives were designed and synthesized, some of them were identified as c-MET inhibitors. Among these compounds with new scaffolds having different quinazoline, pyridine and tetrahydro-pyridothienopyrimidine head groups, compound 11c, 11i, 13b, 13h exhibited both potent inhibitory activities against c-MET and high anticancer activity against tested cancer cell lines in vitro. In addition, kinase selectivity assay further demonstrated that both 13b and 13h are potent and selective c-MET inhibitors. Molecular docking supported that they bound well to c-MET and VEGFR2, which demonstrates that they are potential c-MET RTK inhibitors for cancer therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

8-p-Hdroxybenzoyl tovarol (TAW) is a germacrane-type sesquiterpenoid that can be isolated from the roots of Ferula dissecta (Ledeb.) Ledeb. In this study, the growth inhibitory effects induced by TAW were screened on some types of tumor cells, and the mechanism was investigated on TAW-induced growth inhibition, including paraptosis and autophagy in human cervical cancer HeLa cells. TAW-induced paraptosis involved extensive cytoplasmic vacuolization in the absence of caspase activation. Additionally, TAW evoked cell paraptotic death mediated by endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and unfolded protein response (UPR). Autophagy induced by TAW was found to antagonize paraptosis in HeLa cells. This effect was enhanced by rapamycin and suppressed by the autophagy inhibitor, 3-methyladenine (3MA). Loss of beclin 1 (an autophagic regulator) function led to promote ER stress. Taken together, these results suggest that TAW induces paraptosis like cell death and protective autophagy in HeLa cells, which would provide a new clue for exploiting TAW as a promising agent for the treatment of cervical cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]