Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is an
aggressive disease with a poor
prognosis and a high degree of relapse seen in patients. Overexpression
of FMS-like tyrosine kinase 3 (FLT3) is associated with up to 70%
of AML patients. Wild-type FLT3 induces proliferation and inhibits
apoptosis in AML cells, while uncontrolled proliferation of FLT3 kinase
activity is also associated with FLT3 mutations. Therefore, inhibiting
FLT3 activity is a promising AML therapy. Flavonoids are a group of
phytochemicals that can target protein kinases, suggesting their potential
antitumor activities. In this study, several plant-derived flavonoids
have been identified with FLT3 inhibitory activity. Among these compounds,
compound 40 (5,7,4′-trihydroxy-6-methoxyflavone)
exhibited the most potent inhibition against not only FLT3 (IC50 = 0.44 μM) but also FLT3-D835Y and FLT3-ITD mutants
(IC50 = 0.23 and 0.39 μM, respectively). The critical
interactions between the FLT3 binding site and the compounds were
identified by performing a structure–activity relationship
analysis. Furthermore, the results of cellular assays revealed that
compounds 28, 31, 32, and 40 exhibited significant cytotoxicity against two human AML
cell lines (MOLM-13 and MV-4-11), and compounds 31, 32, and 40 resulted in cell apoptosis and G0/G1
cell cycle arrest. Collectively, these flavonoids have the potential
to be further optimized as FLT3 inhibitors and provide valuable chemical
information for the development of new AML drugs.