The initial evaluation of non-peptidic small-molecule HDM2 inhibitors based on p53–HDM2 complex structure

Peptidic Mouse Double Minute (MDM2) inhibitors have been demonstrated to effectively inhibit the interaction between p53 and MDM2, thus providing a therapeutic strategy for some tumors. However, there is no report on non-peptidic inhibitors. In this study non-peptidic HDM2 (the human homologue of MDM2) inhibitors were obtained by computer-aided design and subsequently synthesized by chemical method. Bio-evaluation showed that some of these inhibitors have affinity with HDM2, and can cause death of some tumor cells which express wild-type p53. Cellular assays showed that one of these compounds, syc-7, can activate the p53 pathway in some of these tumor cell lines, and further induce apoptosis. The results suggest that developing non-peptidic small-molecule HDM2 inhibitors is a promising way for new antitumor drug discovery.