Article
Author: Choo, Edna F. ; Merchant, Mark ; Poy, Florence ; Wang, Jian ; Spillane, Kerry L. ; Beresini, Maureen H. ; Lai, Kwong Wah ; Wang, Fei ; Bellon, Steven ; Zhu, Xiaoyu ; Murray, Jeremy ; Taylor, Alexander M. ; Tsui, Vickie ; Maher, Jonathan ; Liu, Wenfeng ; Xu, Zhongya ; Kaufman, Susan ; Chan, Emily W. ; Wei, Xiaocang ; Xu, Zhaowu ; Crawford, Terry D. ; Chen, Zhongguo ; Liao, Jiangpeng ; Li, Yingjie ; de Leon Boenig, Gladys ; Chen, Kevin X. ; Conery, Andrew R. ; Magnuson, Steven ; Côté, Alexandre ; Cochran, Andrea G. ; Pardo, Eneida ; Kleinheinz, Tracy ; Cummings, Richard ; Noland, Cameron L. ; Jiang, Ying ; Ly, Justin ; Hunsaker, Thomas L. ; Zawadzke, Laura ; Yen, Ivana ; Kharbanda, Samir ; Gascoigne, Karen E. ; Romero, F. Anthony ; Albrecht, Brian K. ; Jayaram, Hariharan ; Kiefer, James R.
The single bromodomain of the closely related transcriptional regulators CBP/EP300 is a target of much recent interest in cancer and immune system regulation. A co-crystal structure of a ligand-efficient screening hit and the CBP bromodomain guided initial design targeting the LPF shelf, ZA loop, and acetylated lysine binding regions. Structure-activity relationship studies allowed us to identify a more potent analogue. Optimization of permeability and microsomal stability and subsequent improvement of mouse hepatocyte stability afforded 59 (GNE-272, TR-FRET IC50 = 0.02 μM, BRET IC50 = 0.41 μM, BRD4(1) IC50 = 13 μM) that retained the best balance of cell potency, selectivity, and in vivo PK. Compound 59 showed a marked antiproliferative effect in hematologic cancer cell lines and modulates MYC expression in vivo that corresponds with antitumor activity in an AML tumor model.