Design, synthesis and evaluation of anti-proliferative activity of 2-aryl-4-aminoquinazoline derivatives as EGFR inhibitors.

A class of 2-aryl-4-aminoquinazoline derivatives (7a-7j, 8a-8h, 9a-9h and 10a-10k) were designed, synthesized and evaluated as EGFR inhibitors. The anti-proliferative activity of compounds in vitro showed that compound 9e was considered to be a promising derivative. Compared with the lead compound Angew2017-7634-1, 9e exhibited excellent inhibitory activity against A549, NCI-H460 and H1975 cell lines, with IC values of 14.33 ± 1.16 μM, 17.81 ± 1.25 μM and 13.41 ± 1.14 μM, respectively. Moreover, 9e could effectively inhibit against Ba/F3-EGFR cell lines. In the kinase experiment, the most promising compound 9e exhibited excellent enzymatic inhibitory activity and selectivity for EGFR, with an IC value of 0.74 μM. Further activity studies showed that 9e could not only induce remarkable cell-apoptosis of A549, but also block A549 cell lines in S-phase in a concentration-dependent manner. Furthermore, molecular docking study revealed the binding mode of 9e. All in all, we analyzed the structure-activity relationship of the target compounds, and explored their mechanism of action.