Synthesis of novel triazole-urea hybrids and their antiproliferative activity against pancreatic cancer through suppression of eEF2K and induction of apoptosis

Abstract

Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest cancers with its highly aggressive and metastatic character and there is a huge unmet need for new drugs treating pancreatic cancer. In the present study, a series of 1,2,4-triazole-urea conjugates have been designed and synthesized as novel candidates of antiproliferative agents against pancreatic cancer cells. Among them, compounds 33, 34, 35 and 38 possesing IC50 values between 0.231 and 0.488 μM against PANC-1 cells demonstrated the highest anti-proliferative activity. These compounds presenting the highest antiproliferative activity were evaluated for further biological studies. The same four compounds inhibited colony formation in pancreatic cancer cells dose dependently. Western blot study on the selected compounds showed that compounds 33 and 38 significantly reduced eEF2K protein levels in cancer cells. These compounds displayed an effective eEF2K activity suppression by down-regulated levels of unphosphorylated eEF2 in PANC-1 cells. Compounds 33, 34, 35 and 38 were also demonstrated to induce apoptosis and activate caspase 3/7. In silico studies were performed to predict the druggability and ADMET/ properties of the active molecules. In summary, 1,2,4-triazole-urea conjugates developed in this study represent a novel and promising lead structure with anticancer activity against pancreatic cancer achieved through eEF2K activity suppression. Compounds being referred to are the first "triazole-urea hybrid" molecules found to be effective against pancreatic cancer.