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The acetylome is important for maintaining the homeostasis of cells. Abnormal changes can result in the pathogenesis of immunological or neurological diseases, and degeneration can promote the manifestation of cancer. In particular, pharmacological intervention in the acetylome with pan‐histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors is clinically validated. However, these drugs exhibit an undesirable risk‐benefit profile due to severe side effects. Selective HDAC inhibitors might promote patient compliance and represent a valuable opportunity in personalised medicine. Therefore, we envisioned the development of HDAC6‐selective inhibitors. During our lead structure identification, we demonstrated that an alkoxyurea‐based connecting unit proves to be beneficial for HDAC6 selectivity and established the synthesis of alkoxyurea‐based hydroxamic acids. Herein, we report highly potent N‐alkoxyurea‐based hydroxamic acids with improved HDAC6 preference compared to nexturastat A. We further validated the biological activity of these oxa analogues of nexturastat A in a broad subset of leukaemia cell lines and demonstrated their superior anti‐proliferative properties compared to nexturastat A., A hydroxylamine connecting unit facilitates HDAC6 preference: The derivatization of nexturastat A with alkoxyurea connecting units is reported. This modification resulted in an increased preference for HDA6 and increased antiproliferative properties in haematological cancer cell lines.

Herein we report the structure-activity and structure-physicochemical property relationships of a series of class I selective ortho-aminoanilides targeting the "foot-pocket" in HDAC12. To balance the structural benefits and the physicochemical disadvantages of these substances, we started with a set of HDACi related to tacedinaline (CI-994) and evaluated their solubility, lipophilicity (log D

[Image: see text] A chiral, hybrid bioisostere of the CF(3) and Et groups (BITE) was installed in a series of vorinostat (Zolinza) analogues, and their histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitory behavior was studied relative to that of their nonfluorinated counterparts. Several of these compounds containing the 1,2-difluoroethylene unit showed in vitro potency greater than that of the clinically approved drug itself against HDAC1. This trend was found to be general with the BITE-modified HDAC inhibitors performing significantly better than the ethyl derivatives. Installed by the direct, catalytic vicinal difluorination of terminal alkenes using an I(I)/I(III) manifold, this underexplored chiral bioisostere shows potential in drug discovery.

Histone deacetylases (HDACs) have been identified as promising epigenetic drug targets for the treatment of neuroblastoma and glioblastoma. In this work, we have rationally designed a novel class of peptoid-based histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACi). A mini library of β-peptoid-capped HDACi was synthesized using a four-step protocol. All compounds were screened in biochemical assays for their inhibition of HDAC1 and HDAC6 and docking studies were performed to rationalize the observed selectivity profile. The synthesized compounds were further examined for tumor cell-inhibitory activity against a panel of neuroblastoma and glioblastoma cell lines. In particular, non-selective compounds with potent activity against HDAC1 and HDAC6 showed strong antiproliferative effects. The most promising HDACi, compound 6i, displayed submicromolar tumor cell-inhibitory potential (IC(50): 0.21–0.67 μM) against all five cancer cell lines investigated and exceeded the activity of the FDA-approved HDACi vorinostat.

Malaria drug discovery has shifted from a focus on targeting asexual blood stage parasites, to the development of drugs that can also target exo-erythrocytic forms and/or gametocytes in order to prevent malaria and/or parasite transmission. In this work, we aimed to develop parasite- selective histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACi) with activity against the disease-causing asexual blood stages of Plasmodium malaria parasites as well as with causal prophylactic and/or transmission blocking properties. An optimized one-pot, multi-component protocol via a sequential Ugi four-component reaction and hydroxylaminolysis was used for the preparation of a panel of peptoid-based HDACi. Several compounds displayed potent activity against drug- sensitive and drug-resistant P. falciparum asexual blood stages, high parasite-selectivity and submicromolar activity against exo-erythrocytic forms of P. berghei. Our optimization study resulted in the discovery of the hit compound 1u which combines high activity against asexual blood stage parasites (Pf 3D7 IC(50): 4 nM; Pf Dd2 IC(50): 1 nM) and P. berghei exo-erythrocytic forms (Pb EEF IC(50): 25 nM) with promising parasite-specific activity (SI(Pf 3D7/HepG2): 2496, SI(Pf Dd2/HepG2): 9990, and SI(Pb EEF/HepG2): 400).

Histone deacetylases (HDACs) have been identified as emerging antiplasmodial drug targets. In this work, we report on the synthesis, structure-activity relationships, metabolic stability and in vivo efficacy of new peptoid-based HDAC inhibitors with dual-stage antiplasmodial activity. A mini library of HDAC inhibitors was synthesized using a one-pot, multi-component protocol or submonomer pathways. The screening of the target compounds for their activity against asexual blood stage parasites, human cell cytotoxicity, liver stage parasites, and selected human HDAC isoforms provided important structure-activity relationship data. The most promising HDAC inhibitor from this series, compound 3n, demonstrated potent activity against drug-sensitive and drug-resistant asexual stage P. falciparum parasites and was selective for the parasite versus human cells (Pf3D7 IC50 0.016 μM; SIHepG2/Pf3D7 573; PfDd2 IC50 0.002 μM; SIHepG2/PfDd2 4580) combined with activity against P. berghei exoerythrocytic liver stages (PbEEF IC50 0.48 μM). While compound 3n displayed high stability in human (Clint 5 μL/min/mg) and mouse (Clint 6 μL/min/mg) liver microsomes, only modest oral in vivo efficacy was observed in P. berghei infected mice. Together these data provide a foundation for future work to improve the properties of these dual-stage inhibitors as drug leads for malaria.

The multicomponent synthesis of a mini-library of histone deacetylase inhibitors with imidazo[1,2- a]pyridine-based cap groups is presented. The biological evaluation led to the discovery of the hit compound MAIP-032 as a selective HDAC6 inhibitor with promising anticancer activity. The X-ray structure of catalytic domain 2 from Danio rerio HDAC6 complexed with MAIP-032 revealed a monodentate zinc-binding mode.

Fluorescent tagging of bioactive molecules is a powerful tool to study cellular uptake kinetics and is considered as an attractive alternative to radioligands. In this study, we developed fluorescent histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors and investigated their biological activity and cellular uptake kinetics. Our approach was to introduce a dansyl group as a fluorophore in the solvent-exposed cap region of the HDAC inhibitor pharmacophore model. Three novel fluorescent HDAC inhibitors were synthesized utilizing efficient submonomer protocols followed by the introduction of a hydroxamic acid or 2-aminoanilide moiety as zinc-binding group. All compounds were tested for their inhibition of selected HDAC isoforms, and docking studies were subsequently performed to rationalize the observed selectivity profiles. All HDAC inhibitors were further screened in proliferation assays in the esophageal adenocarcinoma cell lines OE33 and OE19. Compound 2, 6-((N-(2-(benzylamino)-2-oxoethyl)-5-(dimethylamino)naphthalene)-1-sulfonamido)-N-hydroxyhexanamide, displayed the highest HDAC inhibitory capacity as well as the strongest anti-proliferative activity. Fluorescence microscopy studies revealed that compound 2 showed the fastest uptake kinetic and reached the highest absolute fluorescence intensity of all compounds. Hence, the rapid and increased cellular uptake of 2 might contribute to its potent anti-proliferative properties.

Novel malaria intervention strategies are of great importance due to the development of drug resistance in malaria endemic countries. In this regard, histone deacetylases (HDACs) have emerged as new and promising malaria drug targets. In this work, we present the design, synthesis and biological evaluation of 20 novel HDAC inhibitors with antiplasmodial activity. Based on a previously discovered peptoid-based hit compound, we modified all regions of the peptoid scaffold by utilizing a one-pot multicomponent pathway and submonomer routes to gain a deeper understanding of the structure-activity as well as structure-toxicity relationships. Most compounds displayed potent activity against asexual blood stage P. falciparum parasites with IC(50) values ranging from 0.0052–0.25 µM and promising selectivity over mammalian cells (SI(Pf3D7/HepG2): 170–1483). In addition, several compounds showed encouraging submicromolar activity against P. berghei exo-erythrocytic forms (PbEEF). Our study led to the discovery of the hit compound (N-(2-(benzylamino)-2-oxoethyl)-N-(4-(hydroxycarbamoyl)benzyl)-4-i-propylbenzamide, 2h) as a potent and parasite-specific dual-stage antiplasmodial HDAC inhibitor (IC(50) (Pf3D7) = 0.0052 µM, IC(50) (PbEEF) = 0.016 µM).