Design and Synthesis of Benzenesulfonamides Coupled with Piperidine, Morpholine, and N,N‐Dimethylethanamine Moieties as Apoptotic Inducers through VEGFR2 and Topoisomerase II Inhibition

Abstract

AbstractNovel hybrid series of benzenesulfonamide coupled with piperidine, morpholine, and N,N‐dimethylethanamine moieties at sulfonyl group were designed through pharmacophore hybridization, synthesized, and evaluated for cancer treatment. Benzenesulfonamide‐based derivatives had been synthesized, structurally elucidated, and biologically evaluated as potent VEGFR2 kinase and topoisomerase II inhibitors with cytotoxicity against MCF‐7 and HepG2 cells. Interestingly, the most cytotoxic compound against MCF‐7 and HepG2 cells exhibited promising IC50 values of 0.08 and 0.186 μM, respectively, compared to Doxorubicin as the reference drug with IC50 values of 7.67 and 8.28 μM. It exhibited promising dual enzyme inhibition VEGFR2 and Topoisomerase II with IC50 values of 13.24 nM and 8.3 μM compared to Sorafenib and Doxorubicin as standard drugs. It significantly stimulated total apoptotic breast cancer cell death by 55.25‐fold (34.26 % compared to 0.62 for the control), arresting the cell cycle at S‐phase, which affected the apoptosis‐mediated genes through upregulating P53, Bax, caspases 3, 8, and 9 and downregulating the anti‐apoptotic gene Bcl‐2. A molecular docking study was conducted to confirm the binding affinity of the designed compounds towards VEGFR2 and Topoisomerase II proteins with good binding energy and interactive modes as their co‐crystallized ligands.