Design and synthesis of indoline thiohydantoin derivatives based on enzalutamide as antiproliferative agents against prostate cancer

A novel scaffold of indoline thiohydantoin was discovered as potent androgen receptor (AR) antagonist through rational drug designation. Several compounds showed good biological profiles in AR binding and higher selective toxicity than enzalutamide toward LNCaP cells (AR-rich) versus DU145 cells (AR-deficient). In addition, the docking studies supported the rationalization of the biological evaluation. Among these compounds, the representative compound 48c exhibited the strongest inhibitory effect on LNCaP growth and also acted as a competitive AR antagonist. Further preliminary mechanism study confirmed that 48c exerted its AR antagonistic activity through impairing AR nuclear translocation. All these results indicated that the novel scaffold compounds demonstrated AR antagonistic behavior and promising candidates for future development were identified.