2. Academic Validation
  3. Structure-Guided Design of Highly Selective and Potent Covalent Inhibitors of ERK1/2

Structure-Guided Design of Highly Selective and Potent Covalent Inhibitors of ERK1/2

  • J Med Chem. 2015 Jun 11;58(11):4790-801. doi: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.5b00466.
Richard A Ward,  Nicola Colclough,  Mairi Challinor,  Judit E Debreczeni,  Kay Eckersley,  Gary Fairley,  Lyman Feron,  Vikki Flemington,  Mark A Graham,  Ryan Greenwood,  Philip Hopcroft,  Tina D Howard,  Michael James,  Clifford D Jones,  Christopher R Jones,  Jonathan Renshaw,  Karen Roberts,  Lindsay Snow,  Michael Tonge,  Kay Yeung
PMID: 25977981 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.5b00466
Abstract

The Ras/Raf/MEK/ERK signaling pathway has been targeted with a number of small molecule inhibitors in oncology clinical development across multiple disease indications. Importantly, cell lines with acquired resistance to B-RAF and MEK inhibitors have been shown to maintain sensitivity to ERK1/2 inhibition by small molecule inhibitors. There are a number of selective, noncovalent ERK1/2 inhibitors reported along with the promiscuous hypothemycin (and related analogues) that act via a covalent mechanism of action. This article reports the identification of multiple series of highly selective covalent ERK1/2 inhibitors informed by structure-based drug design (SBDD). As a starting point for these covalent inhibitors, reported ERK1/2 inhibitors and a chemical series identified via high-throughput screening were exploited. These approaches resulted in the identification of selective covalent tool compounds for potential in vitro and in vivo studies to assess the risks and or benefits of targeting this pathway through such a mechanism of action.

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