A new series of spiro aryl dioxolane derivatives were synthesized and evaluated to find a new scaffold as potential poly(ADP-ribose)polymerases-1 (PARP-1) inhibitors. This key starting compound, 2,6-bis(methoxybenzylidene)cyclohexanone, was functionalized with different nucleophilic reagents via cyclocondensation reactions to obtain new benzylidene scaffolds containing diverse aryl groups such as spiroindazoleorquinazoline [1,3]dioxolane compounds. Furthermore, the Michael addition reaction of bis-benzylidene with some active methylene compounds afforded spirochromene-or naphthalene-[1,3]dioxolane compounds. All the synthesized compounds revealed promising inhibition with IC 50 values in the nanomolar range (0.997-2.698 nM), not significantly different from that of Olaparib (IC 50 = 0.861 nM). Compounds 5b and 15 (IC 50 = 1.009 and 0.997 nM) showed the highest potency among all the prepared compounds and accordingly their ability to inhibit the growth of BRCA1 mutated breast cancer cell line MDA-MB-436 was tested, where compound 5b (IC 50 = 0.67 μM) showed a potency ten folds higher than that of Olaparib but compound 15 (IC 50 = 7.47 μM) exerted lower activity but still comparable to that of Olaparib (IC 50 = 6.84 μM). Both resulted in the arrest of cell cycle at S phase and caused cell apoptosis. In silico studies including absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion (ADME) properties, drug-likeness, and molecular docking were carried out to support the above-mentioned findings. This work presents compounds 5b and 15 as promising scaffolds as PARP-1 inhibitors.
| INTRODUCTIONPoly(ADP-ribose) polymerases (PARPs) comprise a family of adenosine diphosphate ribosyltransferases (ADPribosyltransferases) found in all six major eukaryotic supergroups, as well as several species of prokaryotes and dsDNA virus. This family comprises 18 members that are implicated in different processes on the cellular level such as controlling genome integrity and checkpoints for the cell cycle and also have a role in the signaling pathways of DNA repair, transcription, and apoptosis. PARP proteins transfer ADP-ribose moieties to arginine, glutamate, aspartate, cysteine, lysine, and serine acceptor sites [1][2][3][4].The most abundant and well-known member is PARP-1, due to its important role in DNA damage