Novel thiol-based histone deacetylase inhibitors bearing 3-phenyl-1 H -pyrazole-5-carboxamide scaffold as surface recognition motif: Design, synthesis and SAR study

Abstract

A series of novel thiol-based histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors bearing 3-phenyl-1H-pyrazole-5-carboxamide scaffold as surface recognition motif was designed, synthesized, and evaluated for their HDAC inhibition activity. Among them, 15j (IC50=0.08μM) was identified as a better inhibitor than Vorinostat (IC50=0.25μM) against total HDACs. In addition, Structure-activity relationships (SAR) analyses indicated that (i) compounds with different substituents on pyrazole N-1 position exhibited superior activities than those on pyrazole N-2 position, (ii) variation of functional groups on N-1'-alkyl chain terminus followed the trends of carboxyl group>hydroxyl group≫alkyl group, and (iii) methylation on pyrazole C-4 position diminished the HDAC inhibition activity. The SAR will guide us to further refine compounds bearing 3-phenyl-1H-pyrazole-5-carboxamide scaffold to achieve better HDAC inhibitors.