Styryl Quinazolinones as Potential Inducers of Myeloid Differentiation via Upregulation of C/EBPα.

The CCAAT enhancer-binding protein α (C/EBPα) plays an important role in myeloid cell differentiation and in the enhancement of C/EBPα expression/activity, which can lead to granulocytic differentiation in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cells. We found that styryl quinazolinones induce upregulation of C/EBPα expression, and thereby induce myeloid differentiation in human myeloid leukemia cell lines. We screened a series of active styryl quinazolinones and evaluated the structure⁻activity relationship (SAR) of these small molecules in inducing C/EBPα expression-thereby prompting the leukemic cells to differentiate. We observed that compound causes differentiation at 3 μM concentration, while induces differentiation at 10 μM concentration. We also observed an increase in the expression of neutrophil differentiation marker CD11b upon treatment with . Both the C/EBPα and C/EBPε levels were found to be upregulated by treatment with . These SAR findings are inspiration to develop further modified styryl quinazolinones, in the path of this novel differentiation therapy, which can contribute to the care of patients with AML.