Identification of 3-(piperazinylmethyl)benzofuran derivatives as novel type II CDK2 inhibitors: design, synthesis, biological evaluation, and insights.

In the current work, a hybridisation strategy was adopted between the privileged building blocks, benzofuran and piperazine, with the aim of designing novel CDK2 type II inhibitors. The hybrid structures were linked to different aromatic semicarbazide, thiosemicarbazide, or acylhydrazone tails to anchor the designed inhibitors onto the CDK2 kinase domain. The designed compounds showed promising CDK2 inhibitory activity. Compounds , , and showed potent inhibitory activity (IC of 40.91, 41.70, 46.88, and 52.63 nM, respectively) compared to staurosporine (IC of 56.76 nM). Moreover, benzofurans , , , and showed promising antiproliferative activities towards different cancer cell lines, and non-significant cytotoxicity on normal lung fibroblasts MRC-5 cell line. Furthermore, a cell cycle analysis as well as Annexin V-FITC apoptosis assay on Panc-1 cell line were performed. Molecular docking simulations were performed to explore the ability of target benzofurans to adopt the common binding pattern of CDK2 type II inhibitors.