A series of diaryl and alkylaryl sulfoxide-containing nitrogen mustards were synthesized and evaluated for their hypoxia-selective cytotoxicity against V-79 cells in vitro as well as for their metabolism profiles with the rat S-9 fractions. In general, the diaryl sulfoxides (4, 5, and 7-9) showed much greater hypoxia selectivity (11-27-fold) than the alkylaryl sulfoxides (approximately 3-fold) (1 and 3). The fused diphenyl sulfoxides (10 and 11), on the other hand, showed very low hypoxia selectivity (1.3-3-fold). Compound 10 was highly cytotoxic under both aerobic and anaerobic conditions, while 11 showed low cytotoxicity under both conditions. The bioreduction of 8 by the rat S-9 fraction under anaerobic conditions was inhibited by menadione and enhanced by benzaldehyde, acetaldehyde, or 2-hydroxypyrimidine suggesting the involvement of aldehyde oxidase in the reduction of the sulfoxides. Bioreductive metabolism studies of selected model sulfoxides suggested that diaryl sulfoxides are better substrates for aldehyde oxidase than alkylaryl sulfoxides.

Several 1,2-benzisoxazole phosphorodiamidates have been designed as prodrugs of phosphoramide mustard requiring bioreductive activation. Enzymatic reduction of 1,2-benziosoxazole moiety is expected to result in the formation of imine intermediate due to the cleavage of the N-O bond. The imine should then be spontaneously hydrolyzed to a ketone metabolite, thereby facilitating base-catalyzed beta-elimination of cytotoxic phosphoramide mustard. As expected, the proposed prodrugs 4, 9, and 12 were at least 3-5-fold more potent cytotoxins than control compounds 5 and 15, which lack in the phosphoramide mustard group. Upon incubation with phenobarb-induced rat liver S-9 fraction, compounds 4, 9, and 12 underwent extensive NADPH-dependent metabolism with concomitant generation of alkylating activity under both hypoxic and oxic conditions. Corresponding ketone metabolites were detected for 9 and 15. NADPH-dependent bioreduction of 15 to its ketone metabolite 16 was located in the microsomal fraction and inhibited by SKF-525A and pCMBA. Compared with phenobarb-induced rat liver microsomal fraction, incubation of 15 with rat or human p450 reductase microsomes showed moderate generation of 16. Microsomal cytochrome p450 and/or p450 reductase appear to be involved in the reductive metabolism of 1,2-benzisoxazole moiety under hypoxic as well as oxic conditions.

On the basis of our previous findings, a series of 5-substituted 2-iminohydantoins has been synthesized and tested for anticonvulsant activity to better understand the SAR of 2-iminohydantoins. Among the compounds tested, (S)-(+)-1-carbobenzoxy-2-iminohydantoin analogs with ethyl (6)-, n-propyl (7a)-, isopropyl (8)-, allyl (9)-, and sec-butyl (11)-substituted groups at the C5 of the iminohydantoin ring provided the best activities against the MES test with ED50 values in the range of 52-74 mg/kg. All of the above compounds except 8 also showed activity against the scMET test with ED50 values in the range of 141-223 mg/kg. All significantly active compounds (1, 6, 7a, 8, 9, and 11) possessed aliphatic hydrocarbon side chains of two- to three-carbon lengths at the C5 position. All of the compounds with no or minimal activity had either shorter or longer side chains. The compounds substituted at the C5 position by aryl groups, arylalkyl groups, or alkyl and arylalkyl groups containing heteroatoms also showed no activity against the MES and scMET tests. The results suggested that the C5 side chain with the correct stereochemistry in 2-iminohydantoins provides optimal anticonvulsant activity when the side chains are aliphatic hydrocarbons with the length, ignoring branching, of two to three carbons.

Iminohydantoins selectively substituted at position C-5 and their 1-carbobenzoxy derivatives have been synthesized, and their anticonvulsant activity was evaluated in mice. In general, the more lipophilic 1-carbobenzoxy iminohydantoins were more potent than the unsubstituted counterparts. Evaluation of the individual enantiomers of the chiral iminohydantoins showed that the anticonvulsant activity resided primarily in the S isomers. In this study, (S)-(+)-1-carbobenzoxy-5-isobutyl-2-iminohydantoin (9a) was the most active member. This compound was not nearly as active as phenytoin against electrically induced convulsions, but was also active against pentylenetetrazole-induced seizures, suggesting a broader clinical potential. The closest analogue of phenytoin, viz., 5,5-diphenyl-2-iminohydantoin (1), failed to show any significant activity. Methylation on N-3 or the imino nitrogen of 1 also did not provide a compound with substantial activity. 2-Thiophenytoin was not active against electroshock seizures and showed only a weak activity against pentylenetetrazole. This study suggested that the structure-activity relationship of 2-iminohydantoins was quite different from that of 2-hydantoins.

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