Synthesis and biological evaluation of a library of resveratrol analogues as inhibitors of COX-1, COX-2 and NF-κB

Resveratrol (4,3′,5′-trihydroxystilbene) is a naturally occurring antioxidant that inhibits cyclooxygenase-1 (COX-1), cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and the transcription factor NF-κB. A 78-membered library of resveratrol analogues in which the substituents on the two aryl rings and alkene were varied was synthesized using a solid-phase Wittig olefination reaction. The library contains inhibitors against all three proteins that were more potent than resveratrol itself. Preliminary structure-activity relationships were also obtained from these data that permitted the derivation of pharmacophore models for each of the three targets.