Discovery and initial SAR of pyrimidin-4-yl-1H-imidazole derivatives with antiproliferative activity against melanoma cell lines

The synthesis of a novel series of pyrimidin-4-yl-1H-imidazol-2-yl derivatives 7, 8, 9 and their antiproliferative activities against A375P human melanoma cell line and WM3629 cell line were described. Most compounds showed superior antiproliferative activities compared to Sorafenib, the well-known RAF inhibitor. Among them, 7a exhibited potent activities on both cell lines (IC₅₀ = 0.62 and 4.49 μM, respectively) and turned out to be a selective and potent CRAF inhibitor.