Aberrant cellular metabolism drives cancer proliferation and metastasis. ATP citrate lyase (ACL) plays a critical role in generating cytosolic acetyl CoA, a key building block for de novo fatty acid and cholesterol biosynthesis. ACL is overexpressed in cancer cells, and siRNA knockdown of ACL limits cancer cell proliferation and reduces cancer sternness. We characterized a new class of ACL inhibitors bearing the key structural feature of the natural product emodin. Structure-activity relationship (SAR) study led to the identification of id as a potent lead that demonstrated dose-dependent inhibition of proliferation and cancer sternness of the A549 lung cancer cell line. Computational modeling indicates this class of inhibitors occupies an allosteric binding site and blocks the entrance of the substrate citrate to its binding site. (C) 2016 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.