The anti-apoptotic protein inhibitors of the B cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2) family have been developed as new anticancer therapies. Numerous studies illustrated the great potential in the development of dual Bcl-2/myeloid cell leukemia 1 (Mcl-1) inhibitors. Herein, we reported a series of Bcl-2/Mcl-1 inhibitors that optimized from a hit compound 1 via structure-based rational design. The biological evaluation suggested that most compounds exhibited potent binding affinities at submicromolar to both Bcl-2 and Mcl-1 without any Bcl-xL binding affinities, especially compound 9o, with a Ki value of 0.07 μM to Mcl-1 and 0.66 μM to Bcl-2, that has great potential for developing dual inhibitors targeting Bcl-2 and Mcl-1.
Keywords: Bcl-2/Mcl-1; Dual inhibitor; Structure-based rational design.
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