Objective::Cancer poses a great threat to human health, and effective drugs to treat it
are always needed. Several compounds containing a 2-aminopyrazine framework have been
identified as antitumor agents with SHP2 inhibition activities. This current work aimed to search
for more potent novel compounds possessing a 2-aminopyrazine moiety with antitumor activities.Methods::A series of 12 novel 2-aminopyrazine derivatives was synthesized, and their structures
were confirmed by spectroscopic techniques. The inhibitory activities of all the synthesized
compounds against MDA-MB-231 and H1975 cancer cell lines were evaluated by an
MTT assay. The most potent compound 3e was analyzed by flow cytometry. Subsequently,
computational studies were performed to investigate the possible antitumor mechanisms of
compound 3e.Results::The results indicated that compound 3e exhibited potent antitumor activities with IC50
values of 11.84±0.83μM against H1975 cells and 5.66±2.39μM against MDA-MB-231 cells,
which were more potent than the SHP2 inhibitor GS493 (IC50 = 19.08±1.01 μM against H1975
cells and IC50 = 25.02±1.47 μM against MDA-MB-231 cells). Further analysis by flow cytometry
demonstrated that compound 3e induced cell apoptosis in H1975 cells. The results of the
molecular docking and MD simulations, including RMSD, RMSF, PCA, DCCM and binding
energy and decomposition analyses, revealed that compound 3e probably selectively inhibited
SHP2.Conclusion::A new compound having a 2-aminopyrazine substructure with potent inhibitory
activities against the H1975 and MDA-MB-231 cancer cells was obtained, meriting further investigation
as an antitumor drug.
