Discovery of Novel Dual Mechanism of Action Src Signaling and Tubulin Polymerization Inhibitors (KX2-391 and KX2-361)

MichaelP. Smolinski, Yahao Bu, James Clements, Irwin H. Gelman, Taher Hegab, David L. Cutler, Jane W. S. Fang, Gerald Fetterly, Rudolf Kwan, Allen Barnett, Johnson Y. N. Lau, David G. Hangauer

Index: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.8b00164

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Abstract

The discovery of potent, peptide site directed, tyrosine kinase inhibitors has remained an elusive goal. Herein we describe the discovery of two such clinical candidates that inhibit the tyrosine kinase Src. Compound 1 is a phase 3 clinical trial candidate that is likely to provide a first in class topical treatment for actinic keratosis (AK) with good efficacy and dramatically less toxicity compared to existing standard therapy. Compound 2 is a phase 1 clinical trial candidate that is likely to provide a first in class treatment of malignant glioblastoma and induces 30% long-term complete tumor remission in animal models. The discovery strategy for these compounds iteratively utilized molecular modeling, along with the synthesis and testing of increasingly elaborated proof of concept compounds, until the final clinical candidates were arrived at. This was followed with mechanism of action (MOA) studies that revealed tubulin polymerization inhibition as the second MOA.