Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of Novel Epothilone B Side Chain Analogues

The design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of a series of epothilone analogues with novel side chains equipped with an amino group are described. Their design facilitates potential conjugation to selective drug delivery systems such as antibodies. Their synthesis proceeded efficiently via Stille coupling of a readily available vinyl iodide and heterocyclic stannanes. Cytotoxicity studies and tubulin binding assays revealed two of these analogues to be more potent than epothilones A-D and the anticancer agent ixabepilone, currently in clinical use.

Differentiating between models of epothilone binding to microtubules using tubulin mutagenesis, cytotoxicity, and molecular modeling

Microtubule stabilizers are powerful antimitotic compounds and represent a proven cancer treatment strategy. Several classes of compounds in clinical use or trials, such as the taxanes and epothilones, bind to the same region of β-tubulin. Determining how these molecules interact with tubulin and stabilize microtubules is important both for understanding the mechanism of action and enhancing chemotherapeutic potential, for example, minimizing side effects, increasing solubility, and overcoming resistance. Structural studies using non-polymerized tubulin or stabilized polymers have produced different models of epothilone binding. In this study we used directed mutagenesis of the binding site on Saccharomyces cerevisiae β-tubulin to analyze interactions between epothilone B and its biologically relevant substrate, dynamic microtubules. Five engineered amino acid changes contributed to a 125-fold increase in epothilone B cytotoxicity independent of inherent microtubule stability. The mutagenesis of endogenous β-tubulin was done in otherwise isogenic strains. This facilitated the correlation of amino acid substitutions with altered cytotoxicity using molecular mechanics simulations. The results, which are based on the interaction between epothilone B and dynamic microtubules, most strongly support the binding mode determined by NMR spectroscopy-based studies. This work establishes a system for discriminating between potential binding modes and among various compounds and/or analogues using a sensitive biological activity-based readout.

C6-C8 bridged epothilones: consequences of installing a conformational lock at the edge of the macrocycle

A series of conformationally restrained epothilone analogues with a short bridge between the methyl groups at C6 and C8 was designed to mimic the binding pose assigned to our recently reported EpoA-microtubule binding model. A versatile synthetic route to these bridged epothilone analogues has been successfully devised and implemented. Biological evaluation of the compounds against A2780 human ovarian cancer and PC3 prostate cancer cell lines suggested that the introduction of a bridge between C6-C8 reduced potency by 25-1000 fold in comparison with natural epothilone D. Tubulin assembly measurements indicate these bridged epothilone analogues to be mildly active, but without significant microtubule stabilization capacity. Molecular mechanics and DFT energy evaluations suggest the mild activity of the bridged epo-analogues may be due to internal conformational strain.

The binding mode of side chain- and C3-modified epothilones to tubulin

The tubulin-binding mode of C3- and C15-modified analogues of epothilone A (Epo A) was determined by NMR spectroscopy and computational methods and compared with the existing structural models of tubulin-bound natural Epo A. Only minor differences were observed in the conformation of the macrocycle between Epo A and the C3-modified analogues investigated. In particular, 3-deoxy- (compound 2) and 3-deoxy-2,3-didehydro-Epo A (3) were found to adopt similar conformations in the tubulin-binding cleft as Epo A, thus indicating that the 3-OH group is not essential for epothilones to assume their bioactive conformation. None of the available models of the tubulin-epothilone complex is able to fully recapitulate the differences in tubulin-polymerizing activity and microtubule-binding affinity between C20-modified epothilones 6 (C20-propyl), 7 (C20-butyl), and 8 (C20-hydroxypropyl). Based on the results of transferred NOE experiments in the presence of tubulin, the isomeric C15 quinoline-based Epo B analogues 4 and 5 show very similar orientations of the side chain, irrespective of the position of the nitrogen atom in the quinoline ring. The quinoline side chain stacks on the imidazole moiety of beta-His227 with equal efficiency in both cases, thus suggesting that the aromatic side chain moiety in epothilones contributes to tubulin binding through strong van der Waals interactions with the protein rather than hydrogen bonding involving the heteroaromatic nitrogen atom. These conclusions are in line with existing tubulin polymerization and microtubule-binding data for 4, 5, and Epo B.

Epothilone analogues with benzimidazole and quinoline side chains: chemical synthesis, antiproliferative activity, and interactions with tubulin

A series of epothilone B and D analogues bearing isomeric quinoline or functionalized benzimidazole side chains has been prepared by chemical synthesis in a highly convergent manner. All analogues have been found to interact with the tubulin/microtubule system and to inhibit human cancer cell proliferation in vitro, albeit with different potencies (IC(50) values between 1 and 150 nM). The affinity of quinoline-based epothilone B and D analogues for stabilized microtubules clearly depends on the position of the N-atom in the quinoline system, while the induction of tubulin polymerization in vitro appears to be less sensitive to N-positioning. The potent inhibition of human cancer cell growth by epothilone analogues bearing functionalized benzimidazole side chains suggests that these systems might be conjugated with tumor-targeting moieties to form tumor-targeted prodrugs.

Total synthesis and selective activity of a new class of conformationally restrained epothilones

Stereoselective total syntheses of two novel conformationally restrained epothilone analogues are described. Evans asymmetric alkylation, Brown allylation, and a diastereoselective aldol reaction served as the key steps in the stereoselective synthesis of one of the two key fragments of the convergent synthetic approach. Enzyme resolution was employed to obtain the second fragment as a single enantiomer. The molecules were assembled by esterification, followed by ring-closing metathesis. In preliminary cytotoxicity studies, one of the analogues showed strong and selective growth inhibitory activity against two leukemia cell lines over solid human tumor cell lines. The precise biological mechanism of action and high degree of selectivity of this analogue remain to be examined.

Molecular modeling approaches to study the binding mode on tubulin of microtubule destabilizing and stabilizing agents

Tubulin targeting agents constitute an important class of anticancer drugs. By acting either as microtubule stabilizers or destabilizers, they disrupt microtubule dynamics, thus inducing mitotic arrest and, ultimately, cell death by apoptosis. Three different binding sites, whose exact location on tubulin has been experimentally detected, have been identified so far for antimitotic compound targeting microtubules, namely the taxoid, the colchicine and the vinka alkaloid binding site. A number of ligand- and structure-based molecular modeling studies in this field has been reported over the years, aimed at elucidating the binding modes of both stabilizing and destabilizing agent, as well as the molecular features responsible for their efficacious interaction with tubulin. Such studies are described in this review, focusing on information provided by different modeling approaches on the structural determinants of antitubulin agents and the interactions with the binding pockets on tubulin emerged as fundamental for antitumor activity.To describe molecular modeling approaches applied to date to molecules known to bind microtubules, this paper has been divided into two main parts: microtubule destabilizing (Part 1) and stabilizing (Part 2) agents. The first part includes structure-based and ligand-based approaches to study molecules targeting colchicine (1.1) and vinca alkaloid (1.2) binding sites, respectively. In the second part, the studies performed on microtubule-stabilizing antimitotic agents (MSAA) are described. Starting from the first representative compound of this class, paclitaxel, molecular modeling studies (quantitative structure-activity relationships - QSAR - and structure-based approaches), performed on natural compounds acting with the same mechanism of action and temptative common pharmacophoric hypotheses for all of these compounds, are reported.

High-Resolution Solid-State NMR Structure of an Anticancer Agent

We demonstrate that solid-state NMR methods can be used to rapidly determine the high-resolution 3D structure of Epothilone B in the polycrystalline state. The solid-state NMR structures exhibit an average heavy atom RMSD to the mean structure of 0.14 A. The 3D-structural analysis leads to stereospecific assignments and provides insight into the influence of intermolecular interactions upon ssNMR chemical-shift parameters. Our results pave the way to the study of ligand-microtubule interactions in a noncrystalline and insoluble environment at atomic level.