Retinobenzoic acids. 3. Structure-activity relationships of retinoidal azobenzene-4-carboxylic acids and stilbene-4-carboxylic acids

Alkyl-substituted azobenzene-4-carboxylic acids are potent differentiation inducers of human promyelocytic leukemia cell line HL-60 to mature granulocytes. Their structure-activity relationships are very similar to those of other retinoidal benzoic acids which are generally represented by 4 and named retinobenzoic acids. The structure-activity relationships of azobenzenecarboxylic acids can also be applied to the known retinoid TTNPB (3). Thus, (E)-4-[2-(3,4-diisopropylphenyl)-1-propenyl]benzoic acid (St30 (28] and (E)-4-[2-(3-tert-butylphenyl)ethenyl]benzoic acid (St40 (29], the acyclic alkyl analogues of TTNPB, are nearly as active as retinoic acid. Among the oxidatively derived compounds (Az90, Ep series and Ox series) of azobenzene- or stilbenecarboxylic acids, Az90 (71) and Ep80 (61) have strong activities. However, all the bishydroxylated derivatives of TTNPB are inactive, while a diketo analogue Ox580 (69) has only weak potency. The activities of conformationally restricted compounds of TTNPB offer some information on the stereochemistry of the active form of these retinoidal compounds.