Anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) is one of the most popular targets for anticancer therapies. In the past decade, the use of anaplastic lymphoma tyrosine kinase inhibitors (ALK-TKIs), including crizotinib and ceritinib, has been a reliable and standard options for patients with lung cancer, particularly for patients with nonsmall cell lung carcinoma. ALK-targeted therapies initially benefit the patients, yet, resistance eventually occurs. Therefore, resistance mechanisms of ALK-TKIs and the solutions have become a formidable challenge in the development of ALK inhibitors. In this review, based on the knowledge of reported ALK inhibitors, we illustrated the crystal structures of ALK, summarized the resistance mechanisms of ALK-targeted drugs, and proposed potential therapeutic strategies to prevent or overcome the resistance.

The study aimed to establish a high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method for the quantitative analysis of the related substances of bedaquiline fumarate. Nuclear magnetic resonance and mass spectrometry were used for characterization and assay. A chromatographic method was used for separation. The conditions used were: gradient elution system composed of methanol 0.01mol/L KH2PO4 and 0.01 mol/L K2HPO4 (pH = 4.1) with a flow rate of 1 mL/min, at 224 nm as the detection wavelength. In this study, three degradation products of bedaquiline fumarate have been disclosed for the first time. The related impurities and degradation products of the drug were well separated. The method provided linear responses within the concentration range, which varied from 0.20 to 10.08 μg/mL with limits of detection of 0.10 μg/mL and limits of quantification of 0.20 μg/mL. The mean percent recovery varied between 91.64 and 105.89%. The method was validated for other parameters such as specificity, stability, and robustness. This method was validated and worked well for the impurity studies and quality control analysis of the laboratory-prepared samples of bedaquiline fumarate.

Benzofuran-6-carboxylic acid 2 and 2-(tert-butoxycarbonyl)-5,7-dichloro-1,2,3,4-tetrahydroisoquinoline-6-carboxylic acid 21 are two key intermediates for the synthesis of lifitegrast (1). The present study aimed to obtain lifitegrast from the key intermediates of 2 and 5,7-dichloro-2-(2,2,2-trifluoroacetyl)-1,2,3,4-tetrahydroisoquinoline-6-carboxylic acid (31), which had the same core structure as 21. In this study, the synthetic routes of 2 and 31 were explored. 2 and 31 were synthesized from 4-bromo-2-hydroxybenzaldehyde (25) and 2-(2,4-dichlorophenyl)ethan-1-amine (28), with the yields of 78 and 80%, respectively. The route avoided the harsh reaction conditions of generating 2 in a previous study and could more efficiently achieve the core structure of 5,7-dichloro-1,2,3,4-tetrahydroisoquinoline-6-carboxylic acid. Besides, the hydrolysis reaction conditions of preparing lifitegrast were also optimized. In this work, lifitegrast was obtained from 2 and 31 with high purity (>99.9%) and an overall yield of 79%, which was higher than the reported yield of 66%.

Anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) is a promising target for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer. Under crizotinib treatment, drug resistance and progressive disease appeared after the point mutations arising in the kinase domain of ALK. Second-generation ALK inhibitors can solve the deficiencies of the first generation, especially the drug resistance in cancer chemotherapy. Ceritinib (LDK378), a pyrimidine derivative, for example, can inhibit the activity of ALK with an IC50 value of 40.7 nmol/L, and can experience disease progression after initial treatment with crizotinib. Unfortunately, clear structure–activity relationships have not been identified to date, impeding the rational design of future compounds possessing ALK inhibition activity. To explore interesting insights into the structures of pyrimidine derivatives that influence the activities of the second-generation ALK inhibitors, three-dimensional quantitative structure–activity relationship (3D-QSAR) and molecular docking were performed on a total of 45 derivatives of pyrimidine. Comparative molecular field analysis (CoMFA) and comparative molecular similarity index analysis (CoMSIA) techniques were used to generate 3D-QSAR models. CoMFA and CoMSIA were performed using the Sybyl X 2.0 package. Molecular docking analysis was performed using the Surflex-Dock module in SYBYL-X 2.0 package. We found in the CoMFA model that the non-cross-validated r2 value was 0.998, the cross-validated q 2 value was 0.663, and the F statistic value was 2,401.970, while the r2 value was 0.988; q 2 value was 0.730, and F value was 542.933 in CoMSIA models, suggesting the good predictability of the CoMFA and CoMSIA models. 3D contour maps and docking results suggested that different groups on the core parts of the compounds could enhance the biological activities. Based on these results, the established 3D-QSAR models and the binding structures of ALK inhibitors obtained favor the prediction of the activity of new inhibitors and will be helpful in the reasonable design of ALK inhibitors in the future.