Chromatin can adopt a decondensed state linked to gene transcription (euchromatin) and a condensed state linked to transcriptional repression (heterochromatin). These states are controlled by epigenetic modulators that are active on either the DNA or the histones and are tightly associated to each other. Methylation of both DNA and histones is involved in either the activation or silencing of genes and their crosstalk. Since DNA/histone methylation patterns are altered in cancers, molecules that target these modifications are interesting therapeutic tools. We present herein a vast panel of DNA methyltransferase inhibitors classified according to their mechanism, as well as selected histone methyltransferase inhibitors sharing a common mode of action.

Quinazoline is one of the most studied moieties in medicinal chemistry due to the wide range of biological properties such as the anticancer, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, antimalarial and antihypertensive activities. During the past decades, several patents and articles have been published in international peer-reviewed literature regarding the discovery and development of original and promising quinazoline derivatives for cancer treatment. Although quinazolines are well known to inhibit EGFR, there is also a large panel of other therapeutic protein targets. This review summarized the new patents and articles published about quinazoline derivatives as anticancer drugs since 2011. Since 2011, a lot of quinazoline compounds have shown EGFR inhibition. Unlike the first-generation EGFR inhibitors, they inhibit both wild-type and mutated EGFR. In recent years, a number of studies on quinazoline synthesis have been reported and used by several medicinal chemistry groups for better and easier development of new derivatives. Therefore, several patents have been approved for the use of quinazoline compounds as inhibitors of other kinases, histone deacetylase, Nox and some metabolic pathways. Because of the large number of proteins targeted, some high structural diversity is observed in patented quinazoline compounds. Due to the vast applications of quinazoline derivatives, development of novel quinazoline compounds as anticancer drugs remains a promising field.

Investigating a series of anilinoquinazoline derivatives substituted by carbamic acid esters, we have established the importance of the carbamate functional group and the substitution on the arylamino ring by a donor/acceptor group such as halide or methyl. All the newly-synthesized compounds described were evaluated for both their in vitroEGFR and VEGFR-2 kinase inhibition and antiproliferative activities against various cancer cells. These novel compounds were effective tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) for these two enzymes with in vitro IC50 values in the submicromolar range, but showed a moderated inhibitory activity on cancer cells. Modification of the ether linkage at the 6- or 7- position of the quinazoline core with a basic or aliphatic side chain (70–80) was investigated and it was demonstrated that introduction of aminoalkyl substituents such as morpholinoethoxy is a key modification that increases antiproliferative activity.