KEAP1 is the key regulator of the NRF2-mediated cytoprotective response, and increasingly recognized as a target for diseases involving oxidative stress. Pharmacological intervention has focused on molecules that decrease NRF2-ubiquitination through covalent modification of KEAP1 cysteine residues, but such electrophilic compounds lack selectivity and may be associated with off-target toxicity. We report here the first use of a fragment-based approach to directly target the KEAP1 Kelch-NRF2 interaction. X-ray crystallographic screening identified three distinct "hot-spots" for fragment binding within the NRF2 binding pocket of KEAP1, allowing progression of a weak fragment hit to molecules with nanomolar affinity for KEAP1 while maintaining drug-like properties. This work resulted in a promising lead compound which exhibits tight and selective binding to KEAP1, and activates the NRF2 antioxidant response in cellular and in vivo models, thereby providing a high quality chemical probe to explore the therapeutic potential of disrupting the KEAP1-NRF2 interaction.

XIAP and cIAP1 are members of the inhibitor of apoptosis protein (IAP) family and are key regulators of anti-apoptotic and pro-survival signaling pathways. Overexpression of IAPs occurs in various cancers and has been associated with tumor progression and resistance to treatment. Structure-based drug design (SBDD) guided by structural information from X-ray crystallography, computational studies, and NMR solution conformational analysis was successfully applied to a fragment-derived lead resulting in AT-IAP, a potent, orally bioavailable, dual antagonist of XIAP and cIAP1 and a structurally novel chemical probe for IAP biology.

Emergence of clinical resistance to BRAF inhibitors, alone or in combination with MEK inhibitors, limits clinical responses in melanoma. Inhibiting HSP90 offers an approach to simultaneously interfere with multiple resistance mechanisms. Using the HSP90 inhibitor, AT13387, which is currently in clinical trials, we investigated the potential of HSP90 inhibition to overcome or delay the emergence of resistance to these kinase inhibitors in melanoma models. In vitro, treating vemurafenib-sensitive cells (A375 or SK-MEL-28) with a combination of AT13387 and vemurafenib prevented colony growth under conditions where vemurafenib treatment alone generated resistant colonies. In vivo, when AT13387 was combined with vemurafenib in a SK-MEL-28, vemurafenib-sensitive model, no regrowth of tumors was observed over 5 months, although 2 out of 7 tumors in the vemurafenib monotherapy group relapsed in this time. Together these data suggest that the combination of these agents can delay the emergence of resistance. Cell lines with acquired vemurafenib resistance, derived from these models (A375R, SK-MEL-28R) were also sensitive to HSP90 inhibitor treatment; key clients were depleted, apoptosis was induced and growth in 3D-culture was inhibited. Similar effects were observed in cell lines with acquired resistance to both BRAF and MEK inhibitors (SK-MEL-28RR, WM164RR, 1205LuRR). These data suggest that treatment with an HSP90 inhibitor, such as AT13387, is a potential approach for combatting resistance to BRAF and MEK inhibition in melanoma. Moreover, frontline combination of these agents with an HSP90 inhibitor could delay the emergence of resistance, providing a strong rationale for clinical investigation of such combinations in BRAF-mutated melanoma.

The DDR1 and DDR2 receptor tyrosine kinases are activated by extracellular collagen and have been implicated in a number of human diseases including cancer. We performed a fragment-based screen against DDR1 and identified fragments that bound either at the hinge or in the back pocket associated with the DFG-out conformation of the kinase. Modeling based on crystal structures of potent kinase inhibitors facilitated the "back-to-front" design of potent DDR1/2 inhibitors that incorporated one of the DFG-out fragments. Further optimization led to low nanomolar, orally bioavailable inhibitors that were selective for DDR1 and DDR2. The inhibitors were shown to potently inhibit DDR2 activity in cells but in contrast to unselective inhibitors such as dasatinib, they did not inhibit proliferation of mutant DDR2 lung SCC cell lines. KEYWORDS: discoidin domain receptor, fragment-based drug design, back to front kinase design D iscoidin domain receptors, DDR1 and DDR2, are transmembrane receptor tyrosine kinases that are activated by collagen binding to their extracellular domain. 1,2 DDR1 and DDR2 have been associated with extracellular remodeling, cell adhesion, proliferation and migration, and they have been linked to a number of human diseases, including fibrotic disorders, atherosclerosis and cancer. 3−5 There has recently been evidence suggesting that DDR2 inhibitors would be useful for the treatment of lung squamous cell cancer 6,7 although the role of DDR2 may be more complex than first realized. 8−10 Hammerman et al. 6,7 have shown that DDR2 is mutated in approximately 4% of lung squamous cell cancer and have presented data to suggest that these are gain of function mutations. Hammerman et al. 6 have also shown that cell lines harboring these mutations are selectively sensitized through knockdown of DDR2 by RNA interference or by treatment of the multitargeted kinase inhibitor dasatinib. 11 Selective DDR2 inhibitors would therefore be useful to probe the role of DDR2 and may have utility for the treatment of lung cancer. To date, most DDR1/2 inhibitors have been derived from cross-screening of existing kinase inhibitors. 12 Initial compounds often lacked selectivity over homologous enzymes such as Bcr-Abl, but a number of recent papers have described more selective inhibitors which all bind to the DFG-out form of the enzyme. 13−15 Gray and co-workers have identified DDR1/2 inhibitors by screening a library of compounds that had previously been designed by mixing and matching motifs from known Type II kinase inhibitors. 14 The resulting compounds were reported to be selective with IC 50 values versus DDR1 and DDR2 of approximately 100 nM, and experimental binding modes in DDR1 were determined. 14,16 Gao et al. have published a series of potent Type II DDR1 inhibitors that are selective over other kinases, including DDR2. 13 In this Letter we describe a fragment based approach to the discovery of potent and selective DDR1/2 inhibitors. We first obtained a soakable crystal form of DDR1 suitable for high-throughput cry...

Inhibition of murine double minute 2 (MDM2)-p53 protein−protein interaction with small molecules has been shown to reactivate p53 and inhibit tumor growth. Here, we describe rational, structure-guided, design of novel isoindolinone-based MDM2 inhibitors. MDM2 X-ray crystallography, quantum mechanics ligand-based design, and metabolite identification all contributed toward the discovery of potent in vitro and in vivo inhibitors of the MDM2-p53 interaction with representative compounds inducing cytostasis in an SJSA-1 osteosarcoma xenograft model following once-daily oral administration.