Design, synthesis, molecular docking, and anticancer evaluations of 1-benzylquinazoline-2,4(1H,3H)-dione bearing different moieties as VEGFR-2 inhibitors.

A novel series of 1-benzylquinazoline-2,4(1H,3H)-dione derivatives, 6a,b to 11a-e, was designed, synthesized, and evaluated for their anticancer activity against HepG2, HCT-116, and MCF-7 cells. Compounds 11b, 11e, and 11c were found to be the most potent derivatives of all tested compounds against the HepG2, HCT-116, and MCF-7 cancer cell lines, with GI  = 9.16 ± 0.8, 5.69 ± 0.4, 5.27 ± 0.2 µM, 9.32 ± 0.9, 6.37 ± 0.7, 5.67 ± 0.5 µM, and 9.39 ± 0.5, 6.87 ± 0.7, 5.80 ± 0.4 µM, respectively. These compounds exhibited nearly the same activity as sorafenib against HepG2 and HCT-116 cells and a higher activity against MCF-7 cells (GI  = 9.18 ± 0.6, 5.47 ± 0.3, and 7.26 ± 0.3 µM, respectively). Also, these compounds displayed a lower activity than doxorubicin against HepG2 cells and a higher activity against HCT-116 and MCF-7 cells (GI  = 7.94 ± 0.6, 8.07 ± 0.8, and 6.75 ± 0.4 µM, respectively). The most active antiproliferative derivatives, 6a,b, 8, 9, and 11a-e, were selected to evaluate their enzymatic inhibitory activity against VEGFR-2. Compounds 11b, 11e, and 11c potently inhibited VEGFR-2 at IC values of 0.12 ± 0.02, 0.12 ± 0.02, and 0.13 ± 0.02 µM, respectively, which are nearly equipotent as sorafenib IC value (0.10 ± 0.02 µM). Furthermore, molecular docking studies were performed for all synthesized compounds to assess their binding pattern and affinity toward the VEGFR-2 active site.