HIF-1 alpha inhibitors: Synthesis and biological evaluation of novel moracin O and P analogues

Abstract

The natural products moracins O and P exhibited potent in vitro inhibitory activity against hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF-1), which is a key mediator during adaptation of cancer cells to tumour hypoxia. Systematic variations of the structures of benzofuran type moracins were made and structure-activity relationship analysis showed the importance of the 2-arylbenzofuran ring and the (R)-configuration of the core scaffold. Further evaluation of the representative compound 5 showed its inhibitory effect on HIF-1 alpha protein accumulation and target gene expression under hypoxia. (C) 2011 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.