Quinazoline-4(3H)-one derivatives as novel and potent inhibitors of soluble epoxide hydrolase: Design, synthesis and biological evaluation

Inhibition of soluble Epoxide Hydrolase (sEH) is considered as a promising target to reduce blood pressure, improve Insulin sensitivity, and decrease inflammation. In this study, a series of some novel quinazoline-4(3H)-one derivatives (3a-t) with varying steric and electronic properties was designed, synthesized and evaluated as sEH Inhibitors. Most of the synthesized compounds had similar inhibitory activity to the commercial reference inhibitor, 12-(3-adamantan-1-ylureido)dodecanoic acid, and amongst them, 4-chloro-N-(4-(4-oxo-3,4-dihydroquinazoline-2-yl)phenyl)benzamide (3g) was identified as the most active sEH inhibitor (IC₅₀ = 0.5 nM), about 2-fold more potent compared to the reference inhibitor. The results of molecular modeling followed by biological studies indicate that a quinazolinone ring serves as a suitable scaffold to develop novel small molecule candidates to inhibit sEH and the nature of substituent on the amide moiety has a moderate effect on the activity.