2. Academic Validation
  3. Design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of tetrahydroquinolin derivatives as potent inhibitors of CBP bromodomain

Design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of tetrahydroquinolin derivatives as potent inhibitors of CBP bromodomain

  • Bioorg Chem. 2020 Aug;101:103991. doi: 10.1016/j.bioorg.2020.103991.
Yu Chen 1,  Xiaoyang Bi 2,  Fengcai Zhang 3,  Zhongya Sun 4,  Pan Xu 1,  Hao Jiang 1,  Wenchao Lu 5,  Tian Lu 6,  Hong Ding 7,  Naixia Zhang 8,  Hualiang Jiang 1,  Kaixian Chen 9,  Bing Zhou 10,  Cheng Luo 11
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Drug Discovery and Design Center, State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 555 Zuchongzhi Road, Shanghai 201203, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 19 Yuquan Road, Beijing 100049, China.
  • 2 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 19 Yuquan Road, Beijing 100049, China; Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 555 Zuchongzhi Road, Shanghai 201203, China.
  • 3 School of Pharmacy, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330006, China.
  • 4 Drug Discovery and Design Center, State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 555 Zuchongzhi Road, Shanghai 201203, China; School of Life and Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China.
  • 5 Department of Cancer Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
  • 6 Drug Discovery and Design Center, State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 555 Zuchongzhi Road, Shanghai 201203, China; Jiangsu Key Laboratory for High Technology Research of TCM Formulae, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, 138 Xianlin Road, Nanjing 210023, China.
  • 7 Drug Discovery and Design Center, State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 555 Zuchongzhi Road, Shanghai 201203, China. Electronic address: hding@simm.ac.cn.
  • 8 Department of Analytical Chemistry, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 555 Zuchongzhi Road, Shanghai 201203, China.
  • 9 Drug Discovery and Design Center, State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 555 Zuchongzhi Road, Shanghai 201203, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 19 Yuquan Road, Beijing 100049, China; Open Studio for Druggability Research of Marine Natural Products, Pilot National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology (Qingdao), 1 Wenhai Road, Aoshanwei, Jimo, Qingdao 266237, China.
  • 10 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 19 Yuquan Road, Beijing 100049, China; Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 555 Zuchongzhi Road, Shanghai 201203, China. Electronic address: zhoubing@simm.ac.cn.
  • 11 Drug Discovery and Design Center, State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 555 Zuchongzhi Road, Shanghai 201203, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 19 Yuquan Road, Beijing 100049, China; Open Studio for Druggability Research of Marine Natural Products, Pilot National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology (Qingdao), 1 Wenhai Road, Aoshanwei, Jimo, Qingdao 266237, China. Electronic address: cluo@simm.ac.cn.
PMID: 32559581 DOI: 10.1016/j.bioorg.2020.103991
Abstract

CREB-binding protein (CBP) is a large multi-domain protein containing a HAT domain catalyzing transacetylation and a bromodomain responsible for acetylated lysine recognition. CBPs could act as transcription co-activators to regulate gene expression and have been shown to play a significant role in the development and progression of many cancers. Herein, through in silico screening two hit compounds with tetrahydroquinolin methyl carbamate scaffold were discovered, among which DC-CPin7 showed an in vitro inhibitory activity with the TR-FRET IC50 value of 2.5 ± 0.3 μM. We obtained a high-resolution co-crystal structure of the CBP bromodomain in complex with DC-CPin7 to guide following structure-based rational drug design, which yielded over ten DC-CPin7 derivatives with much higher potency, among which DC-CPin711 showed approximately 40-fold potency compared with hit compound DC-CPin7 with an in vitro TR-FRET IC50 value of 63.3 ± 4.0 nM. Notably, DC-CPin711 showed over 150-fold selectivity against BRD4 bromodomains. Moreover, DC-CPin711 showed micromolar level of anti-leukemia proliferation through G1 phase cell cycle arrest and cell Apoptosis. In summary, through a combination of computational and crystal-based structure optimization, DC-CPin711 showed potent in vitro inhibitory activities to CBP bromodomain with a decent selectivity towards BRD4 bromodomains and good cellular activity to leukemia cells, which could further be applied to related biological and translational studies as well as serve as a lead compound for future development of potent and selective CBP bromodomain inhibitors.

Keywords

Acute Myeloblastic Leukemia; Bromodomain; CBP; Drug design; In silico screening; Inhibitor.

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