The synthesis, preclinical profile, and in vivo efficacy in rat xenograft models of the novel and selective anaplastic lymphoma kinase inhibitor 15b (LDK378) are described. In this initial report, preliminary structure-activity relationships (SARs) are described as well as the rational design strategy employed to overcome the development deficiencies of the first generation ALK inhibitor 4 (TAE684). Compound 15b is currently in phase 1 and phase 2 clinical trials with substantial antitumor activity being observed in ALK-positive cancer patients.

A family of N-substituted glycine oligomers (peptoids) of defined length and sequence are shown to condense plasmid DNA into small particles, protect it from nuclease degradation, and efficiently mediate the transfection of several cell lines. The oligomers were discovered by screening a combinatorial library of cationic peptoids that varied in length, density of charge, side-chain shape, and hydrophobicity. Transfection activity and peptoid-DNA complex formation are shown to be highly dependent on the peptoid structure. The most active peptoid is a 36-mer that contains 12 cationic aminoethyl side chains. This molecule can be synthesized efficiently from readily available building blocks. The peptoid condenses plasmid DNA into uniform particles 50-100 nm in diameter and mediates the transfection of a number of cell lines with efficiencies greater than or comparable to DMRIE-C, Lipofectin, and Lipofectamine. Unlike many cationic lipids, peptoids are capable of working in the presence of serum.Viral and nonviral gene transfer systems have been under intense investigation, as interest in the potential of gene therapy for the treatment and prevention of disease is greater than ever (1). Nonviral systems potentially offer many advantages over viral systems, such as ease of manufacture, safety, stability, lack of vector size limitations, low immunogenicity, and the modular attachment of targeting ligands (2). Most nonviral gene delivery systems are based on cationic compounds-either cationic lipids (2) or cationic polymers (3)-that spontaneously complex with a plasmid DNA vector by means of electrostatic interactions, yielding a condensed form of DNA that shows increased stability toward nucleases. Although cationic lipids have been quite successful at delivering genes in vitro, the success of these compounds in vivo has been modest, often because of their high toxicity and low transduction efficiency.A wide variety of cationic polymers have been shown to mediate in vitro transfection, ranging from proteins [such as histones (4) and high mobility group (HMG) proteins (5)] and polypeptides [such as polylysine (3, 6), short synthetic peptides (7, 8), and helical amphiphilic peptides (9, 10)] to synthetic polymers [such as polyethyleneimine (11), cationic dendrimers (12, 13), and glucaramide polymers (14)]. Although the efficiencies of gene transfer vary with these systems, a large variety of cationic structures are effective. Unfortunately, it has been difficult to study systematically the effect of polycation structure on transfection activity.To understand more fully the structure-activity relationship of these cationic polymer delivery systems, we examined a set of cationic N-substituted glycine oligomers (NSG peptoids) of defined length and sequence. Peptoids are a large family of synthetic oligomers that were originally developed for the combinatorial synthesis of compound libraries for drug discovery (15). Recent optimization of the solid-phase coupling chemistry has allowed the synthesis of long oligomers...

In vivo incorporation of isotopically labeled unnatural amino acids into large proteins drastically reduces the complexity of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra. Incorporation is accomplished by co-expressing an orthogonal tRNA/aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase pair specific for the unnatural amino acid added to the media and the protein of interest with a TAG amber codon at the desired incorporation site. To demonstrate the utility of this approach for NMR studies, 2-amino-3-(4-(trifluoromethoxy) phenyl) propanoic acid (OCF 3 Phe), 13 C/ 15 N-labeled p-methoxyphenylalanine (OMePhe), and 15 N-labeled o-nitrobenzyl-tyrosine (oNBTyr) were incorporated individually into 11 positions around the active site of the 33 kDa thioesterase domain of human fatty acid synthase (FAS-TE). In the process, a novel tRNA synthetase was evolved for OCF 3 Phe. Incorporation efficiencies and FAS-TE yields were improved by including an inducible copy of the respective aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase gene on each incorporation plasmid. Using only between 8 and 25 mg of unnatural amino acid, typically 2 mg of FAS-TE, sufficient for one 0.1 mM NMR sample, were produced from 50 mL of E. coli culture grown in rich media. Singly labeled protein samples were then used to study the binding of a tool compound. Chemical shift changes in 1 H-15 N, 1 H-13 C HSQC and 19 F NMR spectra of the different single site mutants consistently identified the binding site and the effect of ligand binding on conformational exchange of some of the residues. OMePhe or OCF 3 Phe mutants of an active site tyrosine inhibited binding; incorporating 15 N-Tyr at this site through UV-cleavage of the nitrobenzyl-photocage from oNBTyr re-established binding. These data suggest not only robust methods for using unnatural amino acids to study large proteins by NMR but also establish a new avenue for the site-specific labeling of proteins at individual residues without altering the protein sequence, a feat that can currently not be accomplished with any other method.

For the first time, new catalysts for olefin polymerization have been discovered through the application of fully integrated high-throughput primary and secondary screening techniques supported by rapid polymer characterization methods. Microscale 1-octene primary screening polymerization experiments combining arrays of ligands with reactive metal complexes M(CH(2)Ph)(4) (M = Zr, Hf) and multiple activation conditions represent a new high-throughput technique for discovering novel group (IV) polymerization catalysts. The primary screening methods described here have been validated using a commercially relevant polyolefin catalyst, and implemented rapidly to discover the new amide-ether based hafnium catalyst [eta(2)-(N,O)[bond](2-MeO[bond]C(6)H(4))(2,4,6-Me(3)C(6)H(2))N]Hf(CH(2)Ph)(3) (1), which is capable of polymerizing 1-octene to high conversion. The molecular structure of 1 has been determined by X-ray diffraction. Larger scale secondary screening experiments performed on a focused 96-member amine-ether library demonstrated the versatile high temperature ethylene-1-octene copolymerization capabilities of this catalyst class, and led to significant performance improvements over the initial primary screening discovery. Conventional one gallon batch reactor copolymerizations performed using selected amide-ether hafnium compounds confirmed the performance features of this new catalyst class, serving to fully validate the experimental results from the high-throughput approaches described herein.

The basic notions of transition state theory have been exploited in the past to generate highly selective catalysts from the vast library of antibody molecules in the immune system. These same ideas were used to isolate an RNA molecule, from a large library of RNAs, that catalyzes the isomerization of a bridged biphenyl. The RNA-catalyzed reaction displays Michaelis-Menten kinetics with a catalytic rate constant (kcat) of 2.8 x 10(-5) per minute and a Michaelis constant (Km) of 542 microM; the reaction is competitively inhibited by the planar transition state analog with an inhibition constant (Ki) value of approximately 7 microM. This approach may provide a general strategy for expanding the scope of RNA catalysis beyond those reactions in which the substrates are nucleic acids or nucleic acid derivatives.