Heterocyclic Compounds as Bcr-Abl Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors Against Chronic Myeloid Leukemia

Despite significant progress in oncology therapeutics, cancer remains a leading cause of mortality worldwide. Chronic myeloid leukemia, which accounts for 15% of all adult leukemia cases, is characterized by chromosomal abnormalities involving the fusion of the Bcr and Abl genes to form the Bcr-Abl oncogene. Current drug treatment of the disease involves the use of Bcr-Abl tyrosine kinase inhibitors belonging to the first, second, and third generations. However, the toxicity and resistance associated with the use of imatinib, a first-generation Bcr-Abl inhibitor, in cases where the T315I mutation exists, necessitates the need for new tyrosine kinase inhibitors. This review focuses on recent synthetic compounds that exhibit potential as inhibitors of the Bcr-Abl protein which could be utilized in chemotherapy. Herein, we evaluated and summarized 36 studies published in the last few years that reported on newly synthesized and biologically evaluated novel small molecules with different heterocyclic scaffolds as Bcr-Abl tyrosine kinase inhibitors. The intricacy of the structure of newly synthesized compounds and the fact that each compound contains more than one scaffold makes it difficult to infer the potentially active core or scaffold. However, investigating different combined scaffolds enhances the chance of successfully developing novel drug candidates. Overall, the information provided in this review can be beneficial to researchers with an interest in chronic myeloid leukemia and tyrosine kinase inhibitors.