The malignant transformation of melanocytes causes several thousand deaths each year, making melanoma an important public health concern. Melanoma is the most aggressive skin cancer, which incidence has regularly increased over the past decades. We described here the preparation of new compounds based on the 1-(3,4-dihydroxyphenyl)imidazo[1,2-a]quinoxaline structure. Different positions of the quinoxaline moiety were screened to introduce novel substituents in order to study their influence on the biological activity. Several alkylamino or alkyloxy groups were also considered to replace the methylamine of our first generation of Imiqualines. Imidazo[1,2-a]pyrazine derivatives were also designed as potential minimal structure. The investigation on A375 melanoma cells displayed interesting in vitro low nanomolar cytotoxic activity. Among them, 9d (EAPB02303) is particularly remarkable since it is 20 times more potent than vemurafenib, the reference clinical therapy used on BRAF mutant melanoma. Contrary to the first generation, EAPB02303 does not inhibit tubulin polymerization, as confirmed by an in vitro assay and a molecular modelisation study. The mechanism of action for EAPB02303 highlighted by a transcriptomic analysis is clearly different from a panel of 12 well-known anticancer drugs. In vivo EAPB02303 treatment reduced tumor size and weight of the A375 human melanoma xenografts in a dose-dependent manner, correlated with a low mitotic index but not with necrosis.

黑色素细胞的恶性转化每年导致数千人死亡，这使黑色素瘤成为重要的公共卫生问题。黑色素瘤是最具有侵略性的皮肤癌，在过去的几十年中，其发病率定期增加。我们在这里描述了基于1-（3,4-二羟基苯基）咪唑并[1,2- a ]喹喔啉结构的新化合物的制备。筛选喹喔啉部分的不同位置以引入新的取代基，以研究其对生物活性的影响。还考虑了几个烷基氨基或烷氧基取代我们第一代咪喹啉的甲胺。咪唑[1,2- a]吡嗪衍生物也被设计为潜在的最小结构。对A375黑色素瘤细胞的研究显示出有趣的体外低纳摩尔细胞毒活性。其中，9d（EAPB02303）特别引人注目，因为它的功效比维拉非尼（用于BRAF突变黑素瘤的参考临床疗法）高20倍。与第一代产品相反，EAPB02303不会抑制微管蛋白的聚合，这一点已通过体外试验和分子模型研究证实。转录组分析突出显示的EAPB02303的作用机制与一组12种著名的抗癌药物明显不同。体内 EAPB02303 这种治疗以剂量依赖的方式减少了A375人黑色素瘤异种移植物的肿瘤大小和重量，这与低有丝分裂指数相关，但与坏死无关。