Synthesis and biological evaluation of novel pyrimidine-benzimidazol hybrids as potential anticancer agents

Article abstract of DOI:10.1016/j.bmcl.2014.06.050

A series of pyrimidine-benzimidazol hybrids was synthesized and evaluated for anticancer activity on four human cancer cell lines including MCF-7, MGC-803, EC-9706 and SMMC-7721. Some of the synthesized compounds exhibited moderate to potent activity against MGC-803 and MCF-7. Among them, compounds 5a-b and 6a-b showed most effective activity. Compounds 5b and 6b were more cytotoxic than 5-fluorouracil against all tested four human cancer cell lines, with IC₅₀ values ranging from 2.03 to 10.55 μM and 1.06 to 12.89 μM, respectively. Flow cytometry analysis demonstrated that treatment of MGC-803 with 6b led to cell cycle arrest at G2/M phase accompanied by an increase in apoptotic cell death.

Full text of DOI:10.1016/j.bmcl.2014.06.050

Accepted Manuscript
Synthesis and biological evaluation of novel pyrimidine-benzimidazol hybrids
as potential anticancer agents
Kun-Peng Shao, Xu-Yao Zhang, Peng-Ju Chen, Deng-Qi Xue, Peng He, Li-
Ying Ma, Jia-Xin Zheng, Qiu-Rong Zhang, Hong-Min Liu
PII:
S0960-894X(14)00678-7
DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bmcl.2014.06.050
BMCL 21769
Reference:
Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters
To appear in:
Received Date:
Revised Date:
Accepted Date:
17 February 2014
6 June 2014
19 June 2014
Please cite this article as: Shao, K-P., Zhang, X-Y., Chen, P-J., Xue, D-Q., He, P., Ma, L-Y., Zheng, J-X., Zhang,
Q-R., Liu, H-M., Synthesis and biological evaluation of novel pyrimidine-benzimidazol hybrids as potential
anticancer agents, Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters (2014), doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bmcl.
2014.06.050
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Synthesis and biological evaluation of novel pyrimidine-benzimidazol hybrids as
potential anticancer agents
Kun-Peng Shaoa, Xu-Yao Zhanga, Peng-Ju Chen, Deng-Qi Xue, Peng He, Li-Ying Ma, Jia-Xin
Zheng, Qiu-Rong Zhang*, Hong-Min Liu∗
School of Pharmaceutical Sciences and New Drug Research & Development Center, Zhengzhou
University, Zhengzhou 450001, P. R. China
Abstract: A series of pyrimidine-benzimidazol hybrids was synthesized and evaluated for
anticancer activity on four human cancer cell lines including MCF-7, MGC-803, EC-9706 and
SMMC-7721. Some of the synthesized compounds exhibited moderate to potent activity against
MGC-803 and MCF-7. Among them, compounds 5a-b and 6a-b showed most effective activity.
Compounds 5b and 6b were more cytotoxic than 5-fluorouracil against all tested four human
cancer cell lines, with IC50 values ranging from 2.03 to 10.55 µM and 1.06 to 12.89 µM,
respectively. Flow cytometry analysis demonstrated that treatment of MGC-803 with 6b led to cell
cycle arrest at G2/M phase accompanied by an increase in apoptotic cell death.
Key words: pyrimidine; benzimidazole; anticancer; cell cycle arrest ; apoptosis.
Cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide, accounting for 8.7 million deaths (around 14%
of all deaths) in 2012. The pharmacological fight against cancer has made significant progress in
the last twenty years. In 2012 (October 1, 2011–September 30, 2012) 35 novel drugs were
approved by the FDA, among which, 10 (28.57%) were used for the treatment of cancer.1
Although many chemotherapeutic agents have been developed to treat different kinds of cancer
effectively, some side effects could happen simultaneously. Therefore novel molecules to fight this
disease are still urgently needed.2,3
Pyrimidine is found as a core structure in a large variety of compounds that exhibit important
biological activity, and several member of this class has earned valued places in chemotherapy as
effective agents, like 5-fluorouracil, erlotinib, gefitinib and caneratinib.4 Many papers have
reported that pyrimidine derivatives showed impressive anticancer activity.5-13 On the other hand,
benzimidazole being an isostere of purine nucleosides and an important scaffold in various
biologically active molecules is widely explored for development of anticancer agents. Several
promising antitumor active agents were found to contain the benzimidazole ring system. They
were found to exert their antitumor activity by acting mainly as antiangiogenic agents,14–15
alkylating agents16–18 and topoisomerases inhibitors.19–21
In 2010, Heba T. Abdel-Mohsenreported that benzimidazole-pyrimidine conjugates exhibited
high antitumor activity.22 Inspired by the literature and in continuation of our previous work,23 we
herein reported the synthesis of novel pyrimidine-benzimidazole hybrids and their anticancer
activity. The anticancer activity evaluation results revealed that the pyrimidine-benzimidazole
hybrids exhibited potent anticancer activity.
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 371 67781739; fax: +86 371 67781739. E-mail address: (1)liuhm@zzu.edu.cn
(H.-M. Liu); (2) zqr406@sina.com (Q.-R. Zhang)
a These authors made equal contributions to this work
1

The synthetic strategy to prepare the target compounds is depicted in scheme 1. The key
intermediates, 2-(chloromethyl)-1H-benzo[d]imidazole 1a and 5-chloro-2-(chloromethyl)-1H-
benzo[d]imidazole 1b were synthesized from commercially available benzene-1,2-diamine or
4-chlorobenzene-1,2-diamine as previously reported.24 2-mercapto-6-phenyl- pyrimidin-4-ol (2)
was synthesized from the reaction of ethyl benzoylacetate with thiourea according to the reported
procedure.25 Compounds 3a and 3b were acquired from the reactions of compound 2 with
compounds 1a and 1b, which were further reacted with POCl3 to yield compounds 4a and 4b.
These highly activated intermediates were then reacted with different substituents to obtain
compounds 5a-p and 6a-g. Finally, all the structures of 5a-p and 6a-g were fully characterized by
1H NMR, 13C NMR and HRMS.26
Scheme 1. Reagents and conditions: (a) chloroacetyl chloride, 5N HCl, reflux, 4 h (85% yield); (b) thiourea, KOH,
EtOH, reflux, 10 h (82% yield); (c) KOH, H2O-acetone (2:1), 55-60℃, 30 min (87-92% yield); (d) POCl3, 90℃,
20 min(89-91% yield); (e) EtOH, reflux, 10 h (65-92% yield).
All the newly synthesized compounds were investigated for their in vitro anticancer activity
on four human cancer cell lines including MCF-7 (human breast cancer cell line), MGC-803
(human gastric cancer cell line), EC-9706 (human esophageal cancer cell line) and SMMC-7721
(human liver cancer cell line) using MTT assay method. The IC50(µM) values
(concentrationrequired to achieve 50% inhibition of the tumor growth) of the tested compounds
and the standard are listed in Table 1. The antitumor drug discovery screen has been designed to
distinguish between broad-spectrum antitumor compounds and tumor selective agents.
In present study, the active analogs showed a distinctive potential pattern of selectivity as
well as broad-spectrum anti-tumor activity. With regard to selectivity against individual cell lines,
many of the compounds showed effectiveness against cell line human breast cancer MCF-7 and
human gastric cancer MGC-803 with IC50 values ranging from 1.40 to 10.58 µM and 1.06 to 9.70
µM respectively comparative to 5-Fu IC50 (7.12 and 3.45µM). EC-9706 human esophageal cancer
cell line proved to be sensitive toward compounds 5a-c, 5e, 6a-b and 6e with IC50 concentration
range of 2.79-9.48 µM comparative to 5-Fu IC50 (8.07µM). Regarding SMMC-7721 human liver
cancer cell line, higher sensitivity was observed with compounds 5b, 6b and 6c with IC50
concentration range of 10.55-14.08 µM comparative to 5-Fu IC50 (15.08 µM). With regard to
broad-spectrum antitumor activity, compounds 5b and 6b showed IC50 concentration range of
2

1.06-12.89 µM against the four cell lines. On the other hand compounds 5a, 5c, 5e, 6a and 6e
showed higher cytotoxic activity against MCF-7, MGC-803 and EC-9706 with low activity
against SMMC-7721. Moreover compounds 5f-g, 5l-n and 6f-g proved to be ineffective against
the four cell lines.
Table 1. Inhibitory activity of pyrimidine derivatives against four human cancer cell lines.
IC50(µM)a
Compound
R1
R2
MCF-7
23.89
23.12
10.25
7.12
MGC-803 EC-9706
SMMC-7721
56.12
53.62
30.16
28.02
20.50
10.55
22.58
22.30
28.55
>100
3a
3b
4a
4b
5a
5b
5c
5d
5e
5f
H
Cl
H
OH-
OH-
20.82
19.35
9.70
8.16
1.33
2.03
2.30
3.24
3.84
45.82
>100
6.12
33.25
15.17
20.06
7.26
16.73
>100
>100
>100
1.07
1.06
4.30
4.41
2.63
53.12
>100
3.45
35.43
32.01
24.19
23.45
3.33
Cl-
Cl
H
Cl-
1.43
4-CH3-C6H5-NH-
4-CH3O-C6H5-NH-
4-F-C6H5-NH-
H
2.90
5.83
H
4.24
8.54
H
12.27
7.64
22.74
9.48
4-Cl-C6H5-NH-
3-CF3-C6H5-NH-
2-CH3O-C6H5-NH-
4-CH3CH2OCO-C6H5-NH-
C6H5-NH-
H
H
>100
>100
5.61
>100
>100
10.09
39.78
21.56
51.05
15.79
20.13
>100
>100
>100
2.79
5g
5h
5i
H
>100
H
31.52
57.27
45.02
67.13
39.16
31.74
>100
H
35.94
17.69
23.72
8.60
3-CH3-C6H5-NH-
4-butyl-C6H5-NH-
4-isopropyl-C6H5-NH-
2-F-C6H5-NH-
5j
H
5k
5l
H
H
5m
5n
5o
5p
6a
6b
6c
6d
6e
6f
H
19.64
>100
>100
>100
1.40
3-Cl-C6H5-NH-
4-NO2-C6H5-NH-
3-NO2-C6H5-NH-
4-CH3CO-C6H5-NH-
4-CH3-C6H5-NH-
4-CH3O-C6H5-NH-
4-F-C6H5-NH-
H
H
>100
H
>100
Cl
Cl
Cl
Cl
Cl
Cl
Cl
19.28
12.89
14.08
20.59
25.59
>100
1.95
3.68
6.37
21.75
15.58
5.85
10.58
4.78
4-Cl-C6H5-NH-
3-CF3-C6H5-NH-
2-CH3O-C6H5-NH-
4-CH3CH2OCO-C6H5-NH-
>100
>100
7.12
>100
>100
8.07
6g
5-Fub
>100
15.08
a Inhibitory activity was assayed by exposure for 72 h to substances and expressed as concentration required to
inhibit tumor cell proliferation by 50% (IC50).
b Positive control.
Some structure-activity relationships could be observed, mainly related to the influence of
different substituents on phenyl ring and an Cl at benzimidazole ring. From the recorded IC50
3

values of series-I (compounds 5a-p) it was observed that different substituents on phenyl ring
exemplified varying degrees of inhibition against the four cell lines. The comparison of the
activities of compouns 5a-b, 5h and 5j-k, compounds 5a-b are the most active members with IC50
values of 1.33-20.50 µM, suggesting that the introduction of small electron-donating groups -CH3
or –OCH3 at para-position of phenyl ring contributed to anticancer activities and big
electron-donating groups –CH2CH2CH2CH3 or –CH(CH3)2 showed a decrease in the antitumor
properties when compared with the compound 5h. On the other hand, introduction of
electron-drawing group F at para-position afforded 5c with a increase in the antitumor activity
against the four cell lines, but introduction of Cl afforded 5d with a decrease in the antitumor
activity against MCF-7 and EC-9706 and a increase against MGC-803and SMMC-7721. The
comparison of the activities of the pair of compounds 5a/5i, 5b/5f, 5c/5l and 5d/5m the first of
each pair-component with a substituent at para-position and the second with the corresponding
substituent at meta-position or ortho-position, showed that substituents at para-position were better.
Analogues 5g and 5n-p with meta-directing groups -O2CCH2CH3, -OCCH3 and -NO2 as para- or
meta-substitutions showed no cytotoxicity against all tested cell lines, however, compound 5e with
-CF3 at meta-position exhibited high antitumor activity. The introduction of a Cl at benzimidazole
ring have some influence on the activity. We compared the activity of seven pairs of compounds
( 5a/6a; 5b/6b; 5c/6c; 5d/6d ; 5e/6e; 5f/6f and 5g/6g). This change could cause a increase (6a and
6e) or decrease (6c) in the antitumor activity but could not determine the activities fundamentally.
Because the compounds we synthesized have very similar structures to the prior work cited in
reference 22，a comparison was made between the two series of compounds. Two compounds (5A
and 5B, Fig. 1) were synthesized having similar structure to compounds 5a and 5b according to
the reference 22, and two human cancer cell lines were choosen. The IC50(µM) values are listed in
Table 2. The comparison of the activities of compouns 5a-b and 5A-B, compounds 5A-B have
better anticancer activities, suggesting that the introduction of a CN at pyrimidine ring contributed
to anticancer activities.
Table 2. Inhibitory activity of compounds
5A and 5B against MCF-7and MGC-803.
IC50(µM)
Compound
MCF-7 MGC-803
5A
5B
1.17
2.56
1.14
1.73
Fig. 1. Structures of compounds 5A and 5B
Compound 6b had a remarkable broad spectrum activity against all tested human cancer cell
lines and highest cytotoxic activity against MGC-803, and it was chosen to be further investigated
regarding its mechanism of action. In order to better characterize the mode of cell death induced
by compound 6b, we performed a biparametric cytofluorimetric analysis using propidium iodide
(PI) and annexin-V-FITC in MGC-803 cells. After treatment with compound 6b at various
concentrations (0, 0.4, 0.8, 1.6 µmol/L) for 12 h, it was observed that the apoptosis rates were
4.8%, 15.9%, 21.4%, and 33.1%, respectively (Fig. 2 A), whereas after treatment with compound
6b (0, 0.4, 0.8, 1.6 µmol/L) for 24 h, the the apoptosis rates were 5.2%, 25.4%, 49.2%, and 61.8%,
respectively ( Fig. 2 B). The results showed that 6b markedly increased the cellular apoptosis in a
concentration- and time-dependent manner.
4

Fig. 2. Apoptosis effect on human MGC-803 cell line induced by compound 6b. Apoptotic cells were detected
with Annexin V/PI double staining after incubation with compounds 6b (0, 0.4, 0.8, 1.6 µmol/L) for for 12 h or 24
h. The lower left quadrant represents live cells, the lower right quadrant is for early/primary apoptotic cells, upper
right quadrant is for late/secondary apoptotic cells, while the upper left quadrant represents cells damaged during
the procedure. (A) incubated for 12 h; (B) incubated for 24 h. The experiments were performed three times, and a
representative experiment is shown.
Many anticancer drugs interact with cells leading to cell growth arrest. In order to explore the
relationship between the high anticancer effects and cell cycle, the effects of different
concentrations of compound 6b on cell cycle progression were examined with MGC-803 cell line.
After treatment with compound 6b at various concentrations (0, 0.4, 0.8, 1.6 µmol/L) for 12 h, it
was observed that the percentage of cells in G2/M phase were 16.46%, 23.38%, 47.79%, and
63.10%, respectively (Fig. 3 A), whereas after treatment of compound 6b (0, 0.4, 0.8,1.6 µmol/L L)
for 24 h, the percentage of cells in G2/M phase were 12.89%, 27.43%, 68.97%, and 73.70%,
respectively (Fig. 3 B). The results suggested that 6b caused a clear G2/M arrest pattern in a
concentration- and time-dependent manner, with a concomitant decrease of cells in other phases of
the cell cycle.
Fig. 3. Effect of compound 6b on the cell cycle distribution of MGC-803 cells. Cells were treated with different
5

concentrations (0, 0.4, 0.8, 1.6 µmol/L ) for 12 h or 24 h. Then the cells were fixed and stained with PI to analyze
DNA content by flow cytometry. (A) incubated for 12 h; (B) incubated for 24 h. The experiments were performed
three times, and a representative experiment is shown.
In conclusion, A novel series of pyrimidine-benzimidazol hybrids were synthesized and
evaluated their anticancer activity in vitro against four human cancer cell lines (MCF-7,MGC-803,
EC-9706 and SMMC-7721). Many of the synthesized compounds exhibited very high anti-tumor
activity. The nature of the substitutions on phenyl ring influenced the antitumor activities
remarkably. Compounds 5b and 6b were more cytotoxic than 5-fluorouracil against all tested four
human cancer cell lines. The results of apoptosis assay and cell cycle analysis demonstrated that
6b clearly inhibits the proliferation of MGC-803 cancer cells by inducing apoptosis and arresting
the cell cycle at G2/M phase. The pyrimidine-benzimidazole conjugates have simple structures
and are easy to synthesize. These compounds are currently being evaluated for their in vivo
efficacy in animal models. These findings have encouraged us to continue the development and
testing of novel pyrimidine-benzimidazole conjugates to conduct further studies to investigate the
structure-activity relationship and elucidate the detailed pharmacological mechanism(s).
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the National Natural Sciences Foundations of China (No.
81172937, U1204206), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 20100480857, 201104402)
and New Teachers’ Fund for Doctor Stations, Ministry of Education (No. 20114101120013).
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26 Selected spectroscopic data. 5a: 1H NMR (400 MHz, DMSO-d6, δ, ppm): 10.08 (s, 1H), 7.80 (d, J = 6.9 Hz,
2H), 7.75 (dd, J1 = 6.1, J2 = 3.1 Hz, 2H), 7.49 (dd, J1 = 6.2 Hz, J2 = 3.2 Hz, 2H), 7.47–7.39 (m, 5H), 7.09 (d, J
= 8.1 Hz, 2H), 7.03 (s, 1H), 4.94 (s, 2H), 2.26 (s, 3H); 13C NMR (100 MHz, DMSO-d6, δ, ppm): 168.2, 161.8,
161.4, 152.4, 136.9, 136.5, 131.8, 131.0, 129.7, 129.3, 126.8, 125.9, 120.9, 114.3, 26.8, 20.9; HR-MS (ESI)
Calcd for C25H21N5S [M+H]+: 424.1596, found: 424.1584. 5b: 1H NMR (400 MHz, DMSO-d6, δ, ppm): 10.23
(s, 1H), 7.79 (t, J = 6.3 Hz, 2H), 7.76 (dd, J1 = 6.1 Hz, J2 =3.1 Hz, 2H), 7.50 (dd, J1 = 6.1 Hz, J2 = 3.1 Hz, 2H),
7.48 – 7.39 (m, 5H), 7.00 (s, 1H), 6.87 (d, J = 8.4 Hz, 2H), 4.95 (s, 2H), 3.73 (s, 3H); 13C NMR (100 MHz,
DMSO-d6, δ, ppm): 167.9, 161.4, 152.3, 136.2, 131.2, 129.3, 126.9, 126.2, 122.8, 114.5, 114.3, 55.7, 26.7;
HR-MS (ESI) Calcd for C25H21N5OS [M+H]+: 440.1545, found: 440.1543. 6a: 1H NMR (400 MHz, DMSO-d6,
δ, ppm): 9.90 (s, 1H), 7.81 (m, 3H), 7.73 (d, J = 8.7 Hz, 1H), 7.48 (m, 4H), 7.40 (d, J = 8.3 Hz, 2H), 7.09 (d, J
= 8.4 Hz, 2H), 6.97 (s, 1H), 4.90 (s, 2H), 2.26 (s, 3H); 13C NMR (100 MHz, DMSO-d6, δ, ppm): 168.0, 161.4,
153.8, 136.4, 132.5, 131.1, 130.6, 130.4, 129.7, 129.3, 126.9, 126.4, 121.0, 115.9, 114.1, 26.9, 26.0; HR-MS
1
(ESI) Calcd for C25H20ClN5S [M+H]+: 458.1206, found: 458.1205. 6b: H NMR (400 MHz, DMSO-d6, δ,
ppm): 10.35 (s, 1H), 7.79 (m 4H), 7.48 (m 6H), 7.02 (s, 1H), 6.87 (s, 2H), 4.95 (s, 2H), 3.73 (s, 3H); 13C NMR
(100 MHz, DMSO-d6, δ, ppm): 167.9, 161.4, 153.8, 136.2, 132.3, 131.1, 130.4, 129.3, 126.9, 126.5, 123.0,
115.9, 114.5, 114.1, 55.7, 26.8; HR-MS (ESI) Calcd for C25H20 ClN50S [M+H]+: 474.1155, found: 474.1153.
7

Graphical abstract
8