Synthesis and biological evaluation of novel 2,4-dianilinopyrimidine derivatives as potent dual janus kinase 2 and histone deacetylases inhibitors

Dual or multiple-targeting inhibition of oncogenic targets in a single molecule could be an alternative approach to drug combinations. Previous studies have revealed that histone deacetylases (HDAC) inhibitor in combination with janus kinase (JAK) inhibitor could exhibit synergistically anti-proliferative effects in cancer treatment. Herein, we presented a novel series of 2,4-dianilinopyrimidine derivatives, which could simultaneously inhibit JAK2 and HDAC1. Among which, 7l was found to be the most potent compound and displayed balanced inhibitory activity against HDAC1 (IC 50  = 1.9 nM) and JAK2 (IC 50  = 0.5 nM), respectively. 7l also demonstrated good antiproliferative activity against tested cancer cell lines (A549, HepG-2, MDA-MB-231 and Jurkat). Moreover, flow cytometric analysis showed that 7l induced apoptosis and cell cycle arrest in a dose-dependent manner, and the insight into mechanisms of 7l indicated that it could decrease the phosphorylation of STAT-3 and promote histone acetylation. In conclusion, these results together suggested that 7l would be a promising lead candidate and deserved further research and development.