Cancer has been a constant companion to multicellular life since its emergence and is a common cause of death among humans, attributed to approximately 10 million deaths each year. The 4,6-disubstituted 1,3,5-triazin-2(1H)-one structural class has shown promising inhibitory effects on human topoisomerase IIα (topo IIα), which is an established chemotherapy target, owing to its role in DNA and cell replication. In this master’s thesis, two sulfur atoms, connecting the triazinone scaffold to the substituents at positions 4 and 6, were substituted for oxygen atoms with the aim to improve the physico-chemical properties of the compounds and to investigate the effects of linker atoms on topo IIα inhibition.
The target compound synthesis was carried out by initial ether formation on the trichloro-1,3,5-triazine and subsequent conversion of the chlorotriazine scaffold into a triazinone.
Five O-triazinones 8-12 were synthesized, among which two were direct analogues of previously assayed S-triazinones. The identity of compounds was confirmed by NMR and HRMS-ESI spectrometric methods. Compounds 9 and 10 exhibited the strongest topo IIα inhibition. As compound 9 is a direct analogue of the S-triazinone 13, we concluded that the change in linker atoms results in marginally reduced topo IIα inhibitory activity and improved physico-chemical properties.
Molecular dynamics simulations for compounds 9 and 13, each in the length of 2 µs, were performed. The trajectory analysis through dynamic pharmacophores and binding free energy calculations revealed, that O-triazinone 9 is more flexible in the ATP binding site than its S-analogue 13, as well as assuming a different binding pose, in which, through interactions with Tyr151, it is able to rigidize a segment of the target protein. Additionally, we showed the importance of water molecules in the binding of O-triazinones, developing a new method for computing dynamic pharmacophores, which allows for a more holistic insight into intermolecular recognition than contemporary methods. The developed method will also be of use in analyzing dynophore models for other protein-ligand systems.
Our research has broadened our understanding of the structure-activity relationships of this compound class as well as aided in planning a more rational approach to the optimization of these promising catalytical inhibitors of topo IIα.
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