Discovery of Novel Bruton's Tyrosine Kinase (BTK) Inhibitors Bearing a N,9-Diphenyl-9H-purin-2-amine Scaffold

Design and Synthesis of Novel HIV-1 NNRTIs with Bicyclic Cores and with Improved Physicochemical Properties

Non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs) represent cornerstones of current regimens for treatment of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infections. However, NNRTIs usually suffer from low aqueous solubility and the emergence of resistant viral strains. In the present work, novel bicyclic NNRTIs derived from etravirine (ETV) and rilpivirine (RPV), bearing modified purine, tetrahydropteridine, and pyrimidodiazepine cores, were designed and prepared. Compounds 2, 4, and 6 carrying the acrylonitrile moiety displayed single-digit nanomolar activities against the wild-type (WT) virus (EC50 = 2.5, 2.7, and 3.0 nM, respectively), where the low nanomolar activity was retained against HXB2 (EC50 = 2.2-2.8 nM) and the K103N and Y181C mutated strains (fold change, 1.2-6.7×). Most importantly, compound 2 exhibited significantly improved phosphate-buffered saline solubility (10.4 μM) compared to ETV and RPV (≪1 μM). Additionally, the binding modes of compounds 2, 4, and 6 to the reverse transcriptase were studied by X-ray crystallography.

Dual-target Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitors: Comprehensive review on the JAK-based strategies for treating solid or hematological malignancies and immune-related diseases

Janus kinases (JAKs) are the non-receptor tyrosine kinases covering JAK1, JAK2, JAK3, and TYK2 which regulate signal transductions of hematopoietic cytokines and growth factors to play essential roles in cell growth, survival, and development. Dysregulated JAK activity leading to a constitutively activated signal transducers and activators of transcription (STAT) is strongly associated with immune-related diseases and cancers. Targeting JAK to interfere the signaling of JAK/STAT pathway has achieved quite success in the treatment of these diseases. However, inadequate clinical response and serious adverse events come along by the treatment of monotherapy of JAK inhibitors. With better and deeper understanding of JAK/STAT pathway in the pathogenesis of diseases, researchers start to show huge interest in combining inhibition of JAK and other oncogenic targets to realize a broader regulation on pathological processes to block disease development and progression, which has hastened extensive research of dual JAK inhibitors over the past decades. Until now, studies of dual JAK inhibitors have added BTK, SYK, FLT3, HDAC, Src, and Aurora kinases to the overall inhibitory profile and demonstrated significant advantage and superiority over single-target inhibitors. In this review, we elucidated the possible mechanism of synergic effects caused by dual JAK inhibitors and briefly describe the development of these agents.

Pyrimidine-fused Dinitrogenous Penta-heterocycles as a Privileged Scaffold for Anti-Cancer Drug Discovery

Pyrimidine-fused derivatives that are the inextricable part of DNA and RNA play a key role in the normal life cycle of cells. Pyrimidine-fused dinitrogenous penta-heterocycles including pyrazolopyrimidines and imidazopyrimidines is a special class of pyrimidine-fused compounds contributing to an important portion in anti-cancer drug discovery, which have been discovered as core structure for promising anti-cancer agents used in clinic or clinical evaluations. Pyrimidine-fused dinitrogenous penta-heterocycles have become one privileged scaffold for anti-cancer drug discovery. This review consists of the recent progress of pyrimidine-fused dinitrogenous penta-heterocycles as anti-cancer agents and their synthetic strategies. In addition, this review also summarizes some key structure-activity relationships (SARs) of pyrimidine-fused dinitrogenous penta-heterocycle derivatives as anti-cancer agents.

Drug Discovery Targeting Focal Adhesion Kinase (FAK) as a Promising Cancer Therapy

FAK is a nonreceptor intracellular tyrosine kinase which plays an important biological function. Many studies have found that FAK is overexpressed in many human cancer cell lines, which promotes tumor cell growth by controlling cell adhesion, migration, proliferation, and survival. Therefore, targeting FAK is considered to be a promising cancer therapy with small molecules. Many FAK inhibitors have been reported as anticancer agents with various mechanisms. Currently, six FAK inhibitors, including GSK-2256098 (Phase I), VS-6063 (Phase II), CEP-37440 (Phase I), VS-6062 (Phase I), VS-4718 (Phase I), and BI-853520 (Phase I) are undergoing clinical trials in different phases. Up to now, there have been many novel FAK inhibitors with anticancer activity reported by different research groups. In addition, FAK degraders have been successfully developed through “proteolysis targeting chimera” (PROTAC) technology, opening up a new way for FAK-targeted therapy. In this paper, the structure and biological function of FAK are reviewed, and we summarize the design, chemical types, and activity of FAK inhibitors according to the development of FAK drugs, which provided the reference for the discovery of new anticancer agents.

Emerging small-molecule inhibitors of the Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK): Current development

Therapy based on Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitors one of the major treatment options currently recommended for lymphoma patients. The first generation of BTK inhibitor, Ibrutinib, achieved remarkable progress in the treatment of B-cell malignancies, but still has problems with drug-resistance or off-target induced serious side effects. Therefore, numerous new BTK inhibitors were developed to address this unmet medical need. In parallel, the effect of BTK inhibitors against immune-related diseases has been evaluated in clinical trials. This review summarizes recent progress in the research and development of BTK inhibitors, with a focus on structural characteristics and structure-activity relationships. The structure-refinement process of representative pharmacophores as well as their effects on binding affinity, biological activity and pharmacokinetics profiles were analyzed. The advantages and disadvantages of reversible/irreversible BTK inhibitors and their potential implications were discussed to provide a reference for the rational design and development of novel potent BTK inhibitors.

Recent Advances in the Discovery of Multitargeted Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors as Anticancer Agents

The treatment of cancer has been one of the most significant challenges for the medical field. Further research on the signal transduction pathway of tumor cells is driving the rapid development of antitumor agents targeting tyrosine kinases. However, most of the currently approved tyrosine kinase inhibitors based on the "single target/single drug" design are becoming less and less effective in the treatment of complex, heterogeneous, and multigenic cancers; this also results in resistance to chemotherapy. In contrast, multitargeted tyrosine kinase inhibitors (MT-TKIs) can effectively block multiple pathways of intracellular signal transduction. Therefore, they have therapeutic advantages over single-targeted inhibitors and have become a hotspot in antitumor drug research in recent years. This minireview summarizes recent advances in the discovery of MT-TKIs based on their chemical structures. In particular, we describe the kinase inhibitory and antitumor activity of promising compounds, as well as their structure - activity relationships (SARs).

JAK3 inhibitors based on thieno[3,2-d]pyrimidine scaffold: design, synthesis and bioactivity evaluation for the treatment of B-cell lymphoma

JAK3 is predominantly expressed in hematopoietic cells and has been a promising therapeutic target for the treatment of B-cell lymphoma. In this study, a new class of thieno[3,2-d]pyrimidines harboring acrylamide pharmacophore were synthesized as potent covalent JAK3 inhibitors (IC₅₀ < 10 nM). Among them, 9a and 9 g displayed the strongest inhibitory potency against JAK3 kinase activity, with IC₅₀ values of 1.9 nM and 1.8 nM, respectively. Furthermore, compared with the reference agents, Spebrutinib and Ibrutinib, 9a not only demonstrated enhanced antiproliferative activity against B lymphoma cells, but also showed very weak proliferative inhibition against normal peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) at a concentration of 20 μM. Analysis of the mechanism revealed that 9a could induce the obvious apoptosis in B lymphoma cells and prevent JAK3-STAT3 cascade as well as BTK pathway. Taken together, 9a may be served as a potential new JAK3 inhibitor for the treatment of B-cell lymphoma.

Novel Pyrimidines as Multitarget Protein Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors for the Treatment of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF)

A new class of pyrimidine derivatives were identified as potent protein tyrosine kinase (PTK) inhibitors for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). Most of these small-molecule inhibitors displayed strong enzymatic activity against BTK and JAK3 kinases at concentrations lower than 10 nM. The representative compound N-(3-((5-chloro-2-(4-((1-morpholino)acetylamino)phenylamino)-4-pyrimidinyl)amino)phenyl)acrylamide (6 a) also exhibited high inhibitory potency toward both BTK and JAK kinase families, as well as ErbB4, at a concentration of 10 nM, achieving rates of inhibition higher than 57 %. Additionally, in vivo biological evaluations showed that 6 a can remarkably decrease the severity of IPF disease. All these investigations suggested that the multi-PTK inhibitor 6 a may serve as a promising agent for the treatment of IPF.

Pharmacophore modeling and virtual screening in search of novel Bruton's tyrosine kinase inhibitors

Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) is a known drug target for B cell malignancies and autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis. Consequently, efforts to develop BTK inhibitors have gained momentum in the last decade, resulting in a number of potential inhibitory molecules. However, to date, there are only two FDA approved drugs for B cell malignancies (Ibrutinib and Acalabrutinib), thus continued efforts are warranted. A large number of molecular scaffolds with potential BTK inhibitory activity are already available from these studies, and therefore we employed a ligand-based approach towards computer-aided drug design to develop a pharmacophore model for BTK inhibitors. Using over 400 molecules with known half maximal inhibitory concentrations (IC₅₀) for BTK, a four-point pharmacophore hypothesis was derived, with two aromatic rings (R), one hydrogen bond acceptor (A) and one hydrogen bond donor (D). Screening of two small-molecule databases against this pharmacophore returned 620 hits with matching chemical features. Docking these against the ATP-binding site of the BTK kinase domain through a virtual screening workflow yielded 30 hits from which ultimately two natural compounds (two best scoring poses for each) were prioritized. Molecular dynamics simulations of these four docked complexes confirmed the stability of protein-ligand binding over a 200 ns time period, and thus their suitability for lead molecule development with further optimization and experimental testing. Of note, the pharmacophore model developed in this study would also be further useful for de novo drug design and virtual screening efforts on a larger scale. Graphical abstract Pharmacophore modeling and virtual screening in search of novel Bruton's tyrosine kinase inhibitors.

Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitors in treating cancer: a patent review (2010-2018)

INTRODUCTION

Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) plays a critical role in the regulation of survival, proliferation, activation and differentiation of B-lineage cells. It participates by regulating multiple cellular signaling pathways, including B cell receptor and FcR signaling cascades. BTK is abundantly expressed and constitutively active in the pathogenesis of B cell hematological malignancies, as well as several autoimmune diseases. Therefore, BTK is considered as an attractive target for treatment of B-lineage lymphomas, leukemias, and some autoimmune diseases. Many industry and academia efforts have been made to explore small molecular BTK inhibitors.

AREAS COVERED

This review aims to provide an overview of the patented BTK inhibitors for the treatment of cancer from 2010 to 2018.

EXPERT OPINION

BTK inhibitors attract much interest for their therapeutic potential in the treatment of cancers and autoimmune diseases, especially for B cell hematological malignancies. In 2013, ibrutinib was approved by the FDA as the first-in-class BTK inhibitors for the treatment of mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), and now it is also undergoing clinical evaluation for other indications in either single or combined therapy. It is clear that BTK inhibitors can provide a promising clinical benefit in treating B-lineage lymphomas and leukemias.

Turning to Computer-aided Drug Design in the Treatment of Diffuse Large B-cell Lymphoma: Has it been Helpful?

INTRODUCTION

Amidst the numerous effective therapeutic options available for the treatment of Diffuse Large B-cell Lymphoma (DLBCL), about 30-40% of patients treated with first-line chemoimmunotherapy still experience a relapse or refractory DLBCL. This has necessitated a continuous search for new therapeutic agents to augment the existing therapeutic arsenal.

METHODS

The dawn of Computer-Aided Drug Design (CADD) in the drug discovery process has accounted for persistency in the application of computational approaches either alone or in combinatorial strategies with experimental methods towards the identification of potential hit compounds with high therapeutic efficacy in abrogating DLBCL.

RESULTS

This review showcases the interventions of structure-based and ligand-based computational approaches which have led to the identification of numerous small molecule inhibitors against implicated targets in DLBCL therapy, even though many of these potential inhibitors are piled-up awaiting further experimental validation and exploration.

CONCLUSION

We conclude that a successful and a conscious amalgamation of CADD and experimental approaches could pave the way for the discovery of the next generation potential leads in DLBCL therapy with improved activities and minimal toxicities.

Adventures in Atropisomerism: Total Synthesis of a Complex Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient with Two Chirality Axes

A strategy to prepare compounds with multiple chirality axes, which has led to a concise total synthesis of compound 1A with complete stereocontrol, is reported.

Finding the molecular scaffold of nuclear receptor inhibitors through high-throughput screening based on proteochemometric modelling

Nuclear receptors (NR) are a class of proteins that are responsible for sensing steroid and thyroid hormones and certain other molecules. In that case, NR have the ability to regulate the expression of specific genes and associated with various diseases, which make it essential drug targets. Approaches which can predict the inhibition ability of compounds for different NR target should be particularly helpful for drug development. In this study, proteochemometric modelling was introduced to analysis the bioactivity between chemical compounds and NR targets. Results illustrated the ability of our PCM model for high-throughput NR-inhibitor screening after evaluated on both internal (AUC > 0.870) and external (AUC > 0.746) validation set. Moreover, in-silico predicted bioactive compounds were clustered according to structure similarity and a series of representative molecular scaffolds can be derived for five major NR targets. Through scaffolds analysis, those essential bioactive scaffolds of different NR target can be detected and compared. Generally, the methods and molecular scaffolds proposed in this article can not only help the screening of potential therapeutic NR-inhibitors but also able to guide the future NR-related drug discovery.

Identification of highly potent BTK and JAK3 dual inhibitors with improved activity for the treatment of B-cell lymphoma

The BTK and JAK3 receptor tyrosine kinases are two validated and therapeutically amenable targets in the treatment of B-cell lymphomas. Here we report the identification of several classes of pyrimidine derivatives as potent BTK and JAK3 dual inhibitors. Among these molecules, approximately two thirds displayed strong inhibitory capacity at less than 10 nM concentration, and four compounds (7e, 7g, 7m and 7n) could significantly inhibit the phosphorylation of BTK and JAK3 enzymes at concentrations lower than 1 nM. Additionally, these pyrimidine derivatives also exhibited enhanced activity to block the proliferation of B-cell lymphoma cells compared with the representative BTK inhibitor ibrutinib. In particular, two structure-specific compounds 7b and 7e displayed stronger activity than reference agents in cell-based evaluation, with IC₅₀ values lower than 10 μM. Further biological studies, including flow cytometric analysis, and a xenograft model for in vivo evaluation, also indicated their efficacy and low toxicity in the treatment of B-cell lymphoma. These findings provide a new insight for the development of novel anti-B-cell lymphoma drugs with multi-target actions.

Phosphamide-containing diphenylpyrimidine analogues (PA-DPPYs) as potent focal adhesion kinase (FAK) inhibitors with enhanced activity against pancreatic cancer cell lines

A family of phosphamide-containing diphenylpyrimidine analogues (PA-DPPYs) were synthesized as potent focal adhesion kinase (FAK) inhibitors. The PA-DPPY derivatives could significantly inhibit the FAK enzymatic activity at concentrations lower than 10.69 nM. Among them, compounds 7a and 7e were two of the most active FAK inhibitors, possessing IC₅₀ values of 4.25 nM and 4.65 nM, respectively. In particular, compound 7e also displayed strong activity against AsPC cell line, with an IC₅₀ of 1.66 μM, but show low activity against the normal HPDE6-C7 cells (IC₅₀ > 20 μM), indicating its low cell cytotoxicity. Additionally, flow cytometry analysis showed that after treatment with 7e (8 μM, 72 h), both AsPC and Panc cells growth were almost totally inhibited, with a cell viability rate of 16.8% and 18.1%, respectively. Overall, compound 7e may be served as a valuable FAK inhibitor for the treatment of pancreatic cancer.

Design and synthesis of sulfonamide-substituted diphenylpyrimidines (SFA-DPPYs) as potent Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitors with improved activity toward B-cell lymphoblastic leukemia

A new series of diphenylpyrimidine derivatives (SFA-DPPYs) were synthesized by introducing a functional sulfonamide into the C-2 aniline moiety of pyrimidine template, and then were biologically evaluated as potent Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitors. Among these molecules, inhibitors 10c, 10i, 10j and 10k displayed high potency against the BTK enzyme, with IC₅₀ values of 1.18 nM, 0.92 nM, 0.42 nM and 1.05 nM, respectively. In particular, compound 10c could remarkably inhibit the proliferation of the B lymphoma cell lines at concentrations of 6.49 μM (Ramos cells) and 13.2 μM (Raji cells), and was stronger than the novel agent spebrutinib. In addition, the inhibitory potency toward the normal PBMC cells showed that inhibitor 10c possesses low cell cytotoxicity. All these explorations indicated that molecule 10c could serve as a valuable inhibitor for B-cell lymphoblastic leukemia treatment.

C-2 (E)-4-(Styryl)aniline substituted diphenylpyrimidine derivatives (Sty-DPPYs) as specific kinase inhibitors targeting clinical resistance related EGFRT790M mutant

With the aim to overcome the drug resistance induced by the EGFR T790M mutation (EGFR^T790M), herein, a family of diphenylpyrimidine derivatives (Sty-DPPYs) bearing a C-2 (E)-4-(styryl)aniline functionality were designed and synthesized as potential EGFR^T790M inhibitors. Among them, the compound 10e displayed strong potency against the EGFR^T790M enzyme, with the IC₅₀ of 11.0nM. Compound 10e also showed a higher SI value (SI=49.0) than rociletinib (SI=21.4), indicating its less side effect. In addition, compound 10e could effectively inhibit the proliferation of H1975 cells harboring the EGFR^T790M mutation, within the concentration of 2.91μM. Significantly, compound 10e has low toxicity against the normal HBE cell (IC₅₀=22.48μM). This work provided new insights into the discovery of potent and selective inhibitor against EGFR^T790M over wild-type (EGFR^WT).

Discovery of new BTK inhibitors with B cell suppression activity bearing a 4,6-substituted thieno[3,2-d]pyrimidine scaffold

Seventeen compounds with 4,6-substituted thieno[3,2-d]pyrimidine scaffold were prepared as new Bruton's tyrosine kinase inhibitors. Compound 8 exhibits anti-BTK activity, immunosuppressive activity, enzymatic selectivity and low toxicity.