Design, synthesis and biological evaluation of novel 2-sulfonylindoles as potential anti-inflammatory therapeutic agents for treatment of acute lung injury.
Xia Q, Bao X, Sun C, Wu D, Rong X, Liu Z, Gu Y, Zhou J, Liang G.
Acute lung injury (ALI) is primarily driven by inflammation that severely impacts lung function. Novel 2-sulfonylindoles were recently shown to exhibit anti-inflammatory activity through the inhibition of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) production. Here, we synthesized 31 compounds which contained 2-sulfonylindole structure. The compounds 8a, 9g, 9h and 9k exhibited dose-dependent anti-inflammatory activity in vitro. Structural-activity relationship analysis revealed that the introduction of sulfonyl group in indole nucleus may be successful to obtain new anti-inflammatory structures and leads. The compounds 9h and 9k also decreased liposaccharide (LPS)-induced IL-6, IL-1β and vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) mRNA expression, both in vitro and in an in vivo model of ALI. Furthermore, the compounds 9h and 9k at a high dose (20 mg/kg) significantly protected against LPS-induced ALI in mice. These results show that compounds 9h and 9k could be a promising lead structure for the treatment of ALI.