Discovery of 4-((E)-3,5-dimethoxy-2-((E)-2-nitrovinyl)styryl)aniline derivatives as potent and orally active NLRP3 inflammasome inhibitors for colitis

NLRP3 inflammasome activation plays a key role in a variety of inflammatory diseases as IBD. Here a series of pterostilbene derivatives were designed and synthesized based on previous SAR, leading to discovery of new effective NLRP3 inflammasome inhibitors with metabolic stability. Among them, the most effective compound 27 showed high inhibitory efficacy (against IL-1 β: IC50 = 1.23 μM) and almost no toxicity (against L02: IC50 > 100 μM). Further mechanism studies have shown that compound 27 directly targets the NLRP3 and affects the assembly of inflammasomes to inhibit the activation of NLRP3 inflammasomes. More importantly, in vitro experiments show that compound 27 has a significant therapeutic effect on DSS-induced colitis in mice with good metabolic stability to liver microsomes (t1/2 = 138.6 min). This research encourages the further development of more effective NLRP3 inflammasome inhibitors based on this chemical scaffold.