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Anti-angiogenesis has been proved to be an effective strategy for the treatment of tumors. Anti-angiogenic drugs had achieved certain therapeutic effects. However, drug resistance also gradually emerged and limited the application of angiogenesis inhibitors. Proteolysis Targeting Chimeras (PROTACs) are bifunctional molecules capable of degrading proteins through the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS). Compared with traditional inhibitors, they displayed advantages of less dosage, lower toxicity and less resistance. In this study, we designed and synthesized a series of novel PROTACs based on our recently reported multi-targeted angiogenesis inhibitor S5. Preliminary biological evaluation of title PROTACs was carried out in various cell lines. The results indicated that these novel bifunctional PROTACs displayed potential in degrading BRAF protein. Their degradation mechanism showed that the degradation of BRAF by PROTAC-1 was dependent on binding to target proteins and E3 ubiquitin ligase. Our findings provided further evidence that these novel PROTACs could be considered in further application in overcome of clinical resistance of traditional angiogenesis inhibitors., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

We previously developed two candidates with potency of inducing vascular normalization, BD7 and B14. However, the definite intracellular molecular target(s) responsible for their activity remains unknown. Herein, we report the discovery and functional assessment of several multifunctional photoaffinity probes for determining the potential biological targets of active compounds. The probes bear a photoaffinity moiety and a bioorthogonal unit attached to B7 or B14 and maintained the bioactivity of the parent active molecules. Using in vitro biological assays, we preliminarily identified VEGFR-2 as a potential intracellular target for the active candidates. Our results demonstrate the utility of these multifunctional photoaffinity probes for analyzing the biological activity and subcellular localization of the intracellular target proteins of active candidates., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Our recent investigation is focused on the discovery of anti-angiogenesis agents. Vascular normalization induced by anti-angiogenic agent appears to be a promising strategy. We have developed novel angiogenesis inhibitors with potency of promoting vascular normalization. Herein, we reported the design, synthesis and preliminary evaluation of proteolysis-targeting chimera (PROTACs) based on the previously developed anti-angiogenesis agents. Two PROTACs exhibited potent VEGFR-2 inhibition and anti-proliferative activity against HUVECs. Moreover, they were capable of reducing protein levels of VEGFR-2 in EA.hy926 cells without significant cytotoxicity against HEK293 cells. The novel PROTACs could be used to normalize the abnormal vessels, resulting in efficient delivery of drugs., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.)

Aberrant angiogenesis is a hallmark of various diseases including cancers. VEGFR-2 inhibitors have been utilized as anti-angiogenic agents for several years. However, compensatory activation of various receptor tyrosine kinases (RTK) could induce the occurrence of resistance. We previously reported a series of multi-target inhibitors of VEGFR-2, Tie-2, and EphB4 as anti-angiogenic agents. These inhibitors might be a promising strategy to overcome the resistance induced by compensatory activation. In order to expand the structural diversity of these multiple RTK inhibitors, we described herein the design, synthesis, and evaluation of a novel class of triplet VEGFR-2/TIE-2/EphB4 inhibitors. The biological evaluation indicated that five compounds (6b, 6d, 6e, 7e, and 7g) exhibited simultaneous VEGFR-2/Tie-2/EphB4 inhibitory activities with IC 50 values less than 50 nM., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.)

VEGFR-2, Tie-2, and EphB4 are essential for both angiogenesis and tumorigenesis. Herein, we developed a series of pyridines incorporated with 1,2,3-triazole as multi-target inhibitors based on the crystal structure alignment of the kinase domain of angiogenic RTKs. Biological results indicated that these multi-target inhibitors displayed considerable potential as novel anti-angiogenic agents. Among them, compound BD7 exhibited the most potent inhibition against the three RTKs simultaneously, and good activity on inhibiting viability of human umbilical endothelial cells. Therefore, 1,2,3-triazole could serve as a promising DFG binding group for multi-target inhibitors of VEGFR-2, Tie-2 and EphB4 bearing pyridine as hinge binding group., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.)

VEGFR-2, TIE-2, and EphB4 are essential for both angiogenesis and tumorigenesis. Herein, we designed and prepared three classes of multi-target inhibitors based on the extensive sequence homology along the kinase domain of angiogenic RTKs. Biological evaluation indicated that these multi-target inhibitors exhibited considerable potential as novel anti-angiogeneic and anticancer agents. Among them, a diaryl thiourea bearing 1H-indazole-3-amine (16a) displayed the most potent RTK inhibition and excellent selectivity. It also showed inhibition on viability of human umbilical vein endothelial cells and anti-proliferation against a broad spectrum of cancer cells. Therefore, 1H-indazole-3-amine could serve as a promising hinge binding group for multi-target inhibitors of VEGFR-2, Tie-2, and EphB4., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.)

Herein, we embarked on a structural optimization campaign aiming at the discovery of second generation anti-angiogenesis agents with our previously reported BPS-7 as lead compound. A library of 27 compounds has been afforded based on the highly conserved ATP-binding pocket of VEGFR-2, Tie-2, and EphB4. Several title compounds exhibited simultaneous inhibitory effects against three angiogenic RTKs. These compounds with a 'triplet' inhibition profile have been identified as novel anti-angiogenic and anticancer agents. The representative VDAU11 displayed prominent anti-angiogenic and anticancer potency and could be considered as a candidate for further optimization. These results indicate that N-(pyridin-2-yl)acrylamide could serve as a novel hinge-binding group of triple inhibitors., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.)