Design, synthesis and evaluation of semi-synthetic triazole-containing caffeic acid analogues as 5-lipoxygenase inhibitors

In this work the synthesis, structure–activity relationship (SAR) and biological evaluation of a novel series of triazole-containing 5-lipoxygenase (5-LO) inhibitors are described. The use of structure-guided drug design techniques provided compounds that demonstrated excellent 5-LO inhibition with IC50 of 0.2 and 3.2 μm in cell-based and cell-free assays, respectively. Optimization of binding and functional potencies resulted in the identification of compound 13d, which showed an enhanced activity compared to the parent bioactive compound caffeic acid 5 and the clinically approved zileuton 3. Compounds 15 and 16 were identified as lead compounds in inhibiting 5-LO products formation in neutrophils. Their interference with other targets on the arachidonic acid pathway was also assessed. Cytotoxicity tests were performed to exclude a relationship between cytotoxicity and the increased activity observed after structure optimization.