Potent arylsulfonamide inhibitors of tumor necrosis factor-alpha converting enzyme able to reduce activated leukocyte cell adhesion molecule shedding in cancer cell models.

Activated leukocyte cell adhesion molecule (ALCAM) plays a relevant role in tumor biology and progression. Our previous studies showed that ALCAM is expressed at the surface of epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) cells and is released in a soluble form by ADAM-17-mediated shedding. This process is relevant to EOC cell motility and invasiveness, which is reduced by nonspecific inhibitors of ADAM-17. For this reason, ADAM-17 may represent a new useful target in anticancer therapy. Herein, we report the synthesis and biological evaluation of new ADAM-17 inhibitors containing an arylsulfonamidic scaffold. Among the new potential inhibitors, two very promising compounds 17 and 18 were discovered, with a nanomolar activity for ADAM-17 isolated enzyme. These compounds proved to be also the most potent in inhibiting soluble ALCAM release in cancer cells, showing a nanomolar activity on A2774 and SKOV3 cell lines.