Elucidation of an Allosteric Mode of Action for a Thienopyrazole RORγt Inverse Agonist.
ChemMedChem 2020;
15:561-565. [PMID:
32053744 PMCID:
PMC7187189 DOI:
10.1002/cmdc.202000044]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/23/2020] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
The demand for allosteric targeting of nuclear receptors is high, but examples are limited, and structural information is scarce. The retinoic acid‐related orphan receptor gamma t (RORγt) is an important transcriptional regulator for the differentiation of T helper 17 cells for which the first, and some of the most promising, examples of allosteric nuclear receptor modulation have been reported and structurally proven. In a 2015 patent, filed by the pharmaceutical company Glenmark, a new class of small molecules was reported that act as potent inverse agonists for RORγt. A compound library around the central thienopyrazole scaffold captured a clear structure‐activity relationship, but the binding mechanism of this new class of RORγt modulators has not been elucidated. Using a combination of biochemical and X‐ray crystallography studies, here the allosteric mechanism for the inverse agonism for the most potent compound, classified in the patent as “example 13”, is reported, providing a strongly desired additional example of allosteric nuclear receptor targeting.
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