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BACE1 is a key protease controlling the formation of amyloid ␤, a peptide hypothesized to play a significant role in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Therefore, the development of potent and selective inhibitors of BACE1 has been a focus of many drug discovery efforts in academiaandindustry.Herein,wereportthenonclinicalandearlyclinicaldevelopmentofLY2886721,aBACE1activesiteinhibitorthatreached phase 2 clinical trials in AD. LY2886721 has high selectivity against key off-target proteases, which efficiently translates in vitro activity into robust in vivo amyloid ␤ lowering in nonclinical animal models. Similar potent and persistent amyloid ␤ lowering was observed in plasma and lumbar CSF when single and multiple doses of LY2886721 were administered to healthy human subjects. Collectively, these data add support for BACE1 inhibition as an effective means of amyloid lowering and as an attractive target for potential disease modification therapy in AD.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the level of 7,8-dihydro-8-oxo-2'-deoxyguanosine (8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine) (8-oxo-dG), a major mutagenic DNA oxidation product, is enhanced in newborn rat liver DNA as a consequence of oxidative stress incurred during the early postnatal period. 32P-postlabeling showed this adduct to increase approximately 2-fold from the 20th day of gestation (2 days before birth) to a peak level at 50-53 h after birth. Postnatal levels exceeded fetal levels at all time points investigated, i.e. 0.5-1, 8, 24, 50-53, 100, 216 and 432 h after birth. Increased formation of this mutagenic DNA lesion during the critical postnatal phase when there is rapid cell proliferation in all tissues is proposed to contribute to carcinogenesis in susceptible tissues later in life.

The BACE1 enzyme is a key target for Alzheimer's disease. During our BACE1 research efforts, fragment screening revealed that bicyclic thiazine 3 had low millimolar activity against BACE1. Analysis of the co-crystal structure of 3 suggested that potency could be increased through extension toward the S3 pocket and through conformational constraint of the thiazine core. Pursuit of S3-binding groups produced low micromolar inhibitor 6, which informed the S3-design for constrained analogs 7 and 8, themselves prepared via independent, multi-step synthetic routes. Biological characterization of BACE inhibitors 6-8 is described.

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