Design, Synthesis, and Pharmacological Evaluation of Novel Multisubstituted Pyridin-3-amine Derivatives as Multitargeted Protein Kinase Inhibitors for the Treatment of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

A novel series of pyridin-3-amine derivatives were designed, synthesized, and evaluated as multitargeted protein kinase inhibitors for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Hit 1 was first disclosed by in silico screening against fibroblast growth factor receptors (FGFR), which was subsequently validated by in vitro experiments. The structure–activity relationship (SAR) of its analogues was then explored to afford novel FGFR inhibitors 2a–2p and 3a–3q. Among them, 3m showed potent inhibition against FGFR1, 2, and 3. Interestingly, compound 3m not only inhibited various phosphorylation and downstream signaling across different oncogenic forms in FGFR-overactivated cancer cells but also showed nanomolar level inhibition against several other NSCLC-related oncogene kinases, including RET, EGFR, EGFR/T790M/L858R, DDR2, and ALK. Finally, in vivo pharmacology evaluations of 3m showed significant antitumor activity (TGI = 66.1%) in NCI-H1581 NSCLC xenografts with a good pharmacokinetic profile.