Article
Author: Dong, Zhiqiang ; McWilliams, Lisa ; Braybrooke, Erin ; Hargreaves, David ; Ye, Yang ; McCoull, William ; Thomson, Clare ; Li, Songlei ; Barton, Peter ; Ward, Richard A. ; Evans, Laura ; Packer, Martin J. ; Guérot, Carine ; Floc’h, Nicolas ; Lister, Andrew ; Colclough, Nicola ; Winlow, Poppy ; Orme, Jonathan P. ; Khurana, Puneet ; Li, Xiuwei ; Swaih, Aisha M.
Herein, we report the identification and optimization of a series of potent inhibitors of EGFR Exon20 insertions with significant selectivity over wild-type EGFR. A strategically designed HTS campaign, multiple iterations of structure-based drug design (SBDD), and tactical linker replacement led to a potent and wild-type selective series of molecules and ultimately the discovery of 36. Compound 36 is a potent and selective inhibitor of EGFR Exon20 insertions and has demonstrated encouraging efficacy in NSCLC EGFR CRISPR-engineered H2073 xenografts that carry an SVD Exon20 insertion and reduced efficacy in a H2073 wild-type EGFR xenograft model compared to CLN-081 (5), indicating that 36 may have lower EGFR wild-type associated toxicity.