10.1002/jhet.749
The study investigates the synthesis and evaluation of novel quinoline derivatives for their anticancer and radiosensitizing properties. The researchers synthesized a series of quinoline derivatives (6–12) and pyrimido[4,5-b]quinoline derivatives (16–20) to assess their potential as inhibitors of vascular endothelial growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase (VEGFR-TK), which is implicated in cancer cell proliferation and angiogenesis. The compounds were evaluated for their in vitro anticancer activity against the human breast cancer cell line MCF7, which overexpresses VEGFR. Notably, compounds 6 and 7 exhibited significant cytotoxic activity, with IC50 values of 8.5 μM and 21.9 μM, respectively, surpassing the reference drug doxorubicin (IC50 = 32.02 μM). These two compounds were further tested for their ability to enhance the cell-killing effect of gamma radiation, showing a synergistic decrease in IC50 values when combined with radiation. The study also utilized molecular modeling to generate a pharmacophore hypothesis for VEGFR-TK inhibitors and conducted docking studies to explore the binding modes of the synthesized compounds, revealing that compound 7 had a binding mode similar to the known VEGFR-TK inhibitor Vatalanib. The results suggest that some of the synthesized compounds may act as VEGFR-TK inhibitors, contributing to their anticancer activity and radiosensitizing effects.