Synthesis, biological evaluation, and physicochemical property assessment of 4-substituted 2-phenylaminoquinazolines as Mer tyrosine kinase inhibitors.

Current results identified 4-substituted 2-phenylaminoquinazoline compounds as novel Mer tyrosine kinase (Mer TK) inhibitors with a new scaffold. Twenty-one 2,4-disubstituted quinazolines (series 4 – 7 ) were designed, synthesized, and evaluated against Mer TK and a panel of human tumor cell lines aimed at exploring new Mer TK inhibitors as novel potential antitumor agents. A new lead, 4b , was discovered with a good balance between high potency (IC 50 0.68 μM) in the Mer TK assay and antiproliferative activity against MV4-11 (GI 50 8.54 μM), as well as other human tumor cell lines (GI 50 < 20 μM), and a desirable druglike property profile with low log P value (2.54) and high aqueous solubility (95.6 μg/mL). Molecular modeling elucidated an expected binding mode of 4b with Mer TK and necessary interactions between them, thus supporting the hypothesis that Mer TK might be a biologic target of this kind of new active compound. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]