Design, synthesis and biological evaluation of novel 4-arylaminopyrimidine derivatives possessing a hydrazone moiety as dual inhibitors of L1196M ALK and ROS1

A series of 4-arylaminopyrimidine derivatives possessing a hydrazone moiety were designed, synthesized and evaluated for their biological activity. Most compounds exhibited moderate to excellent cytotoxic activity against ALK-addicted KARPAS299 and ROS1-addicted HCC78, while also showing much less potent activity against A549, H460 and HT-29, whose growth were not dependent on ALK and/or ROS1, as compared with crizotinib and ceritinib. The most promising compound, 7b, showed high antiproliferative effects on ALK-addicted KARPAS299 and ROS1-addicted HCC78 cell lines with IC50 of 20 nM and 28 nM, respectively, but showed no inhibitory activity against A549, H460 and HT-29. The enzymatic assay identified 7b as a potent and selective ALK and ROS1 dual inhibitor with IC50 of 2.5 nM and 2.7 nM, respectively. It also exhibited good inhibitory activity against the L1196M ALK with an IC50 value of 67 nM.