Design, synthesis and biological evaluation of thienopyridinones as Chk1 inhibitors

A series of thienopyridinone derivatives was designed and synthesized as inhibitors of checkpoint kinase 1 (Chk1). Most of them exhibited moderate to good Chk1 inhibitory activities. Among them, compounds 8q, 8t, and 8w with excellent Chk1 inhibitory activities (IC50 values of 4.05, 6.23, and 2.33nM, respectively) displayed strong synergistic effects with melphalan, a DNA-damaging agent in the cell-based assay. Further kinase profiling indicated that compound 8t was highly selective against CDK2/cyclinA, Aurora A, and PKC.