Note
DOI: 10.1002/bkcs.10358
BULLETIN OF THE
S.-Y. Jang et al.
KOREAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY
Synthesis of Quinazoline Analogues with Differential Activity
for HER2-overexpressing Breast Cancer Cells
Sun-Young Jang,†,‡,§ Seul Lee,‡,§ Mira Kim,†,‡ Young Jin Ham,† Mi Young Cha,† Kwee Hyun Suh,†
†,
Young Hoon Kim,† Ara Kwon,‡ Hae Ju Kang,‡ Kyung Hoon Min,‡, and Kwang-Ok Lee
*
*
†Hanmi Research Center, Hanmi Pharm. Co. Ltd, Gyeonggi-do 445-813, Republic of Korea.
*E-mail: kolee@hanmi.co.kr
‡College of Pharmacy, Chung-Ang University, Seoul 156-756, Republic of Korea. *E-mail: khmin@cau.ac.kr
Received March 18, 2015, Accepted March 26, 2015, Published online June 23, 2015
Keywords: HER2, Tyrosine kinase inhibitor, Quinazoline analogues
HER2 (also known as ErbB2) is a member of the epidermal
growth factor receptor (EGFR) family, which also includes
EGFR, HER2, HER3, and HER4. It is a receptor tyrosine
kinase1,2 and plays a pivotal role in oncogenic transformation
and tumorigenesis via homodimerization or heterodimerization
with EGFR family members to activate intracellular
signaling.3,4 Overexpression oramplification of HER2receptor
is seen in a variety of cancers, including breast, gastric,
pancreatic, andbladdercancer.5 Recent cancer genome sequen-
cing has shown that somatic mutations in HER2 are driver
eventsinbreast6 andnon–smallcelllungcancers.7 Drugstarget-
ing HER2 include monoclonal HER2 antibodies, such as tras-
tuzumab8 andpertuzumab,9 andtyrosinekinaseinhibitors,such
as lapatinib.10 These drugs are used clinically in combination
with other anticancer drugs for the treatment of HER2-positive
breastcancer. LapatinibisaninhibitorofbothEGFRandHER2
and exhibits potent antiproliferative activity against EGFR- and
HER2-dependent cancer cells. However, potent inhibition of
EGFR causes side effects, including diarrhea and skin rash,
which diminish patient quality of life during long-term treat-
ment. These adverse events are common with EGFR tyrosine
kinase inhibitors such as gefitinib11 and erlotinib12
(Figure 1). Thus, when using lapatinib, it is important to mini-
mizethesideeffectsbyreducingtheinhibitionofEGFRactivity
and maximizing the drug efficacy.13 Herein, we describe potent
inhibitors with differential activity in HER2-dependent breast
cancer cells and EGFR-dependent cancer cells.
nitroquinazoinone 2 using thionyl chloride in the presence
of phosphoryl chloride and DMF (dimethylformamide)
afforded 4-chloroquinazoline 3, which was converted to ami-
noquinazoline 4 through the addition of 3-chloro-4-(pyridin-
2-ylmethoxy) aniline and subsequent reduction using iron.
Coupling of N-Boc-protected amino acids and aminoquinazo-
line 4 followed by deprotection of the N-Boc group using tri-
fluoroacetic acid provided the desired analogues (6–14).
The synthetic route for C7-modified quinazoline analogues
is illustrated in Scheme 2. 6-Fluoro-7-nitroquinazolinone 15
was synthesized from commercially available 2-amino-4-
fluoro-5-nitrobenzoic acid using the same synthetic method
used for compound 2. Nucleophilic substitution with
alcohols or amine in the presence of potassium trimethylsila-
nolate in DMSO (dimethyl sulfoxide) gave the quinazolinone
16, which was converted to chloroquinazoline 17 and reduced
to 7-aminoquinazline 18. Finally, N-Boc-L-proline was
coupled with 7-aminoquinazoline 18 in the presence of
EDCI
(1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)carbodiimide),
and N-Boc group was deprotected to provide C6-modified qui-
nazoline analogues (20–23).
Antiproliferation assay15 was performed to determine the
selectivity between A-431, an EGFR-overexpressing cancer
cell line, and SKBr-3, an HER2-overexpressing breast cancer
cell line (Table 1). Gefitinib was used as an EGFR selective
inhibitorandlapatinib wasusedasanEGFR/HER2 dualinhib-
itor. Acyclicamino acid derivative 6showed higher selectivity
for SKBr-3 cells than the corresponding cyclic derivative 8.
(S)-Isomer 7 exhibited ~10-fold greater potency than racemic
compound 8. Ring-expanded compounds (R)-9 and (S)-10
were also synthesized. (S)-Isomer 10,16 which had a GI50 of
8.8 nM, showed more than 200-fold greater potency than
(R)-isomer 9, which had a GI50 of 2148 nM in SKBr-3 cells.
In terms of selectivity, the activity of (S)-isomer 10 in
SKBr-3 cells was ~21-fold greater than that in A-431 cells.
However, (R)-isomer 9 did not show differential activity in
A-431 and SKBr-3 cells. N-methylation of the pyrrolidine
group of compound 10 led to a complete loss of activity. Piper-
idine derivatives 12–14 had similar activity in both A431 and
SKBr-3 cells, but were less active than compound 10.
We commenced with the synthesis of a series of quinazoline
derivatives (Table 1), in which an amide replaced the substi-
tuted furan moiety of lapatinib at the C6 position, as well as
the C7 position (Figure 2). The aniline moiety at the C4 position
was fixed as 3-chloro-4-(pyridin-2-ylmethoxy)aniline, because
it was a useful substituent to increase growth inhibitory activity
against SkBr3 cells according to our previous report.14
The synthesis of C6-modified quinazoline analogues is
outlined in Scheme 1. 7-Nitro-4(3H)-quinazolinone 2 was
obtained from the reaction of 2-amino-5-nitrobenzoic acid
1
with formamide at 170 ꢀC. Chlorination of 7-
§ These authors contributed equally to this work.
Bull. Korean Chem. Soc. 2015, Vol. 36, 1933–1935
© 2015 Korean Chemical Society, Seoul & Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
Wiley Online Library
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