Design, Synthesis, Biological Evaluation, and Computational Studies of Novel Fluorinated Candidates as PI3K Inhibitors: Targeting Fluorophilic Binding Sites

Abstract

Highly fluorinated candidates containing anticancer pharmacophores like thiosemicarbazone (5a-e) and its cyclic analogues hydrazineylidenethiazolidine (6a-e), 2-aminothiadiazole (7a-e), and 2-hydrazineylidenethiazolidin-4-one (8a-e) were synthesized, and their cytotoxic activity was assayed against 60 tumor cell lines. Compounds 6c, 7b, and 8b displayed the most potent activity with lower toxic effects on MCF-10a. In vitro phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) enzyme inhibition was performed. Compound 6c displayed half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC₅₀, μM) values of 5.8, 2.3, and 7.9; compound 7b displayed IC₅₀ values of 19.4, 30.7, and 73.7; and compound 8b displayed IC₅₀ values of 77.5, 53.5, and 121.3 for PI3Kα, β, and δ, respectively. Moreover, cell cycle progression caused cell cycle arrest at the S phase for compounds 6c and 8b and at G1/S for compound 7b, while apoptosis was induced. In silico studies; molecular docking; physicochemical parameters; and absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion, and toxicity (ADMET) analysis were performed. The results showed that compound 6c is the most potent one with a selectivity index (SI) of 39 and is considered as a latent lead for further optimization of anticancer agents.