Synthesis and anti-tumor activity of EF24 analogues as IKKβ inhibitors

EF24 is an IKKβ inhibitor (IC50: 72 μM) containing various anti-tumor activities. In this study, a series of EF24 analogs targeting IKKβ were designed and synthesized. Several IKKβ inhibitors with better activities than EF24 were screened out and B3 showed best IKKβ inhibitory (IC50: 6.6 μM). Molecular docking and dynamic simulation experiments further confirmed this inhibitory effect. B3 obviously suppressed the viability of Hela229, A549, SGC-7901 and MGC-803 cells. Then, in SGC-7901 and MGC-803 cells, B3 blocked the NF-κB signal pathway by inhibiting IKKβ phosphorylation, and followed arrested the cell cycle at G2/M phase by suppressing the Cyclin B1 and Cdc2 p34 expression, induced the cell apoptosis by down-regulating Bcl-2 protein and up-regulating cleaved-caspase3. Moreover, B3 significantly reduced tumor growth and suppressed the IKKβ-NF-κB signal pathway in SGC-7901 xenograft model. In total, this study present a potential IKKβ inhibitor as anti-tumor precursor. [Display omitted] •Newly IKKβ inhibitors based on EF24 were designed and synthesized, and several compounds had better activity than EF24.•The inhibitory effect of active compound B3 against IKKβ kinase was confirmed by molecular docking.•By inhibiting IKKβ-NF-κB axis, compound B3 exhibited excellent anti-tumor activity in vitro and in vivo.