Synthesis,biological evaluation, 3D-QSAR studies of novel aryl-2H-pyrazole derivatives as telomerase inhibitors

A series of novel aryl-2H-pyrazole derivatives bearing 1,4-benzodioxan or 1,3-benzodioxole moiety were designed as potential telomerase inhibitors to enhance the ability of aryl-2H-pyrazole derivatives to inhibit telomerase, a target of anticancer. The telomerase inhibition tests showed that compound 16A displayed the most potent inhibitory activity with IC₅₀ value of 0.9 μM for telomerase. The antiproliferative tests showed that compound 16A exhibited high activity against human gastric cancer cell SGC-7901 and human melanoma cell B16-F10 with IC₅₀ values of 18.07 and 5.34 μM, respectively. Docking simulation showed that compound 16A could bind well with the telomerase active site and act as telomerase inhibitor. 3D-QSAR model was also built to provide more pharmacophore understanding that could be used to design new agents with more potent telomerase inhibitory activity.