Recruitment of hexahydroquinoline as anticancer scaffold targeting inhibition of wild and mutants EGFR (EGFR WT , EGFR T790M , and EGFR L858R ).

Hexahydroquinoline (HHQ) scaffold was constructed and recruited for development of new series of anticancer agents. Thirty-two new compounds were synthesised where x-ray crystallography was performed to confirm enantiomerism. Thirteen compounds showed moderate to good activity against NCI 60 cancer cell lines, with GI % mean up to 74% for 10c . Expending erlotinib as a reference drug, target compounds were verified for their inhibiting activities against EGFR WT , EGFR T790M , and EGFR L858R where compound 10d was the best inhibitor with IC 50 = 0.097, 0.280, and 0.051 µM, respectively, compared to erlotinib (IC 50 = 0.082 µM, 0.342 µM, and 0.055 µM, respectively). Safety profile was validated using normal human lung (IMR-90) cells. 10c and 10d disrupted cell cycle at pre-G1 and G2/M phases in lung cancer, HOP-92, and cell line. Molecular docking study was achieved to understand the potential binding interactions and affinities in the active sites of three versions of EGFRs.