Synthesis and biological evaluation of thiophene-based hydroxamate derivatives as HDACis with antitumor activities.

Aim: Histone deacetylases (HDACs) are one of the validated targets for cancer treatments. In our previous work, we designed a series of bis-substituted aromatic amide HDAC inhibitors (HDACis), among which compounds 7 and 8 showed promising anticancer effects. However, the low solubilities prevented their subsequent developments. We developed additional thiophene-based hydroxamate HDACis in order to improve their physicochemical properties. Materials & methods:In vitro biological evaluations of these analogs revealed potent antiproliferative and antimigrated activities. More importantly, compound 10h exhibited excellent in vivo antitumor activities in MDA-MB-231 xenograft model mice. Furthermore, 10h showed better anticancer activities and drug-like properties than 7. Results & conclusion: Our results proved that thiophene-based hydroxamate HDACis can serve as a promising framework for developing potential anticancer agents. Graphical abstract