Macrocyclic aminopyrimidines as multitarget CDK and VEGF-R inhibitors with potent antiproliferative activities

X-ray structures from CDK2-aminopyrimidine inhibitor complexes led to the idea to stabilize the active conformation of aminopyrimidine inhibitors by incorporating the recognition site into a macrocyclic framework. A modular synthesis approach that relies on a new late-stage macrocyclization protocol that enables fast and efficient synthesis of macrocyclic aminopyrimidines was developed. A set of structurally diverse derivatives was prepared. Macrocyclic aminopyrimidines were shown to be multitarget inhibitors of CDK1/2 and VEGF-RTKs. In addition, potent antiproliferative activities toward various human tumor cells and a human tumor xenograft model were demonstrated.