Synthesis and biological evaluation of anilide derivatives as epidermal growth factor receptor L858R/T790M and L858R/T790M/C797S inhibitors

Development of a mutant epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitor is important for the treatment of various cancers. Third-generation EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) have been clinically used by targeting T790M specifically but are recently known to induce T790M/C797S mutation after the treatment. Therefore, there is an unmet need to develop novel kinase inhibitors targeting the mutant EGFRs. Here, we designed and synthesized 16 analogs by hybridizing EAI045 (1) and 3′,4′,5′-trihydroxyflavone (2) and identified 9a, 9b, and 20b as EGFR L858R/T790M/C797S mutant inhibitors. In addition, we found that 10a and 10b can inhibit both L858R/T790M and L858R/T790M/C797S. Molecular docking study on a plausible binding mode of the compounds is also provided.