A series of 4(5)-(6-alkylpyridin-2-yl)imidazoles
13a-
p,
17a, and
17b have been synthesized and evaluatedfor ALK5 inhibitory activity in an enzyme assay and in cell-based luciferase reporter assays. The quinoxalinylanalogue
13e inhibited ALK5 phosphorylation with an IC
50 of 0.012
![](/images/entities/mgr.gif)
M and showed more than 90% inhibitionat 0.05
![](/images/entities/mgr.gif)
M in a luciferase reporter assay using HaCaT cells transiently transfected with p3TP-luc reporterconstruct. The binding mode of
13e generated by flexible docking studies shows that
13e fits well into theactive site cavity of ALK5 by forming several tight interactions.