Synthesis and biological evaluation of 4-phenoxy-6,7-disubstituted quinolines possessing semicarbazone scaffolds as selective c-Met inhibitors.

Novel quinoline derivatives bearing acyclic semicarbazones were prepared and their chemical structures as well as the relative stereochemistry were confirmed. All the synthesized compounds were evaluated for their c-Met kinase inhibitory activity and their cytotoxicity against the cell lines HT-29, MKN-45, and MDA-MB-231 in vitro. Several potent compounds were further evaluated against A549 cells. Most compounds displayed moderate to excellent activity, and the structure-activity relationship studies identified the most promising compound 35 as a selective c-Met kinase inhibitor (IC50  = 4.3 nM). Compound 35 showed a 3.5- and 18.8-fold increase in cytotoxicity in vitro against HT-29 and A549 cells, respectively, compared to that of foretinib. Poor off-target effects of compound 35 were further confirmed by the antiproliferative activity against the c-Met inhibition less sensitive MDA-MB-231 cell line (IC50  = 0.77 µM).