In Pursuit of Best-in-Class MCL-1 Inhibitors: Discovery of Highly Potent 1,4-Indoyl Macrocycles with Favorable Physicochemical Properties.

Myeloid Cell Leukemia 1, or MCL-1, is an anti-apoptotic protein belonging to the BCL-2 family of proteins, which regulate the mitochondrial pathway of cellular apoptosis via binding of pro- and anti-apoptotic family members. Genetic amplification and overexpression of MCL-1 is one mechanism cancer cells utilize to avoid death and thus MCL-1 has emerged as an attractive target for cancer treatment. Herein, we describe our strategy and medicinal chemistry efforts to identify best-in-class MCL-1 inhibitors with high cytotoxic potency and improved biorelevant solubility while aiming to maximize therapeutic index versus on-target toxicity via IV dosing.

Development of dihydropyrrolopyridinone-based PKN2/PRK2 chemical tools to enable drug discovery.

The Protein Kinase N proteins (PKN1, PKN2 and PKN3) are Rho GTPase effectors. They are involved in several biological processes such as cytoskeleton organization, cell mobility, adhesion, and cell cycle. Recently PKNs have been reported as essential for survival in several tumor cell lines, including prostate and breast cancer.

Development of 2-(4-pyridyl)-benzimidazoles as PKN2 chemical tools to probe cancer.

Kinases are signalling proteins which have proven to be successful targets for the treatment of a variety of diseases, predominantly in cancers. However, only a small proportion of kinases (<20%) have been investigated for their therapeutic viability, likely due to the lack of available chemical tools across the kinome. In this work we describe initial efforts in the development of a selective chemical tool for protein kinase N2 (PKN2), a relatively unexplored kinase of interest in several types of cancer.