New quinoline and isatin derivatives as apoptotic VEGFR-2 inhibitors: design, synthesis, anti-proliferative activity, docking, ADMET, toxicity, and MD simulation studies

Abstract

New quinoline and isatin derivatives having the main characteristics of VEGFR-2 inhibitors was synthesised. The antiproliferative effects of these compounds were estimated against A549, Caco-2, HepG2, and MDA-MB-231. Compounds 13 and 14 showed comparable activities with doxorubicin against the Caco-2 cells. These compounds strongly inhibited VEGFR-2 kinase activity. The cytotoxic activities were evaluated against Vero cells. Compound 7 showed the highest value of safety and selectivity. Cell migration assay displayed the ability of compound 7 to prevent healing and migration abilities in the cancer cells. Furthermore, compound 7 induced apoptosis in Caco-2 through the expressive down-regulation of the apoptotic genes, Bcl2, Bcl-xl, and Survivin, and the upregulation of the TGF gene. Molecular docking against VEGFR-2 emerged the interactions of the synthesised compounds in a similar way to sorafenib. Additionally, seven molecular dynamics simulations studies were applied and confirmed the stability of compound 13 in the active pocket of VEGFR-2 over 100 ns.

Keywords:

• VEGFR-2
• anticancer
• isatin derivatives
• quinoline derivatives
• apoptosis
• gene expression
• cell cycle analysis
• docking
• MD simulations

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University Researchers Supporting Project number [PNURSP2022R142], Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.