Novel Arginase Inhibitor, AZD0011, Demonstrates Immune Cell Stimulation and Antitumor Efficacy with Diverse Combination Partners.

Antitumor immunity can be hampered by immunosuppressive mechanisms in the tumor microenvironment, including recruitment of arginase (ARG) expressing myeloid cells that deplete l-arginine essential for optimal T-cell and natural killer cell function. Hence, ARG inhibition can reverse immunosuppression enhancing antitumor immunity. We describe AZD0011, a novel peptidic boronic acid prodrug to deliver an orally available, highly potent, ARG inhibitor payload (AZD0011-PL). We demonstrate that AZD0011-PL is unable to permeate cells, suggesting that this compound will only inhibit extracellular ARG. In vivo, AZD0011 monotherapy leads to arginine increases, immune cell activation, and tumor growth inhibition in various syngeneic models. Antitumor responses increase when AZD0011 is combined with anti-PD-L1 treatment, correlating with increases in multiple tumor immune cell populations. We demonstrate a novel triple combination of AZD0011, anti-PD-L1, and anti-NKG2A, and combination benefits with type I IFN inducers, including polyI:C and radiotherapy. Our preclinical data demonstrate AZD0011's ability to reverse tumor immunosuppression and enhance immune stimulation and antitumor responses with diverse combination partners providing potential strategies to increase immuno-oncology therapies clinically.

Fluorine-Directed Glycosylation Enables the Stereocontrolled Synthesis of Selective SGLT2 Inhibitors for Type†II Diabetes.

Inhibition of the sodium-glucose co-transporters (SGLT1 and SGLT2) is a validated strategy to address the increasing prevalence of type II diabetes mellitus. However, achieving selective inhibition of human SGLT1 or SGLT2 remains challenging. Orally available small molecule drugs based on the d-glucose core of the natural product Gliflozin have proven to be clinically effective in this regard, effectively impeding glucose reabsorption. Herein, we disclose the influence of molecular editing with fluorine at the C2 position of the pyranose ring of Phlorizin analogues Remogliflozin Etabonate and Dapagliflozin (Farxiga® ) to concurrently direct ß-selective glycosylation, as is required for biological efficacy, and enhance aspects of the physicochemical profile. Given the abundance of glycosylated pharmaceuticals in diabetes therapy that contain a ß-configured d-glucose nucleus, it is envisaged that this strategy may prove to be expansive.

Generation of in-silico cytochrome P450 1A2, 2C9, 2C19, 2D6, and 3A4 inhibition QSAR models.

In-silico models were generated to predict the extent of inhibition of cytochrome P450 isoenzymes using a set of relatively interpretable descriptors in conjunction with partial least squares (PLS) and regression trees (RT). The former was chosen due to the conservative nature of the resultant models built and the latter to more effectively account for any non-linearity between dependent and independent variables. All models are statistically significant and agree with the known SAR and they could be used as a guide to P450 liability through a classification based on the continuous pIC50 prediction given by the model. A compound is classified as having either a high or low P450 liability if the predicted pIC(50) is at least one root mean square error (RMSE) from the high/low pIC(50) cut-off of 5. If predicted within an RMSE of the cut-off we cannot be confident a compound will be experimentally low or high so an indeterminate classification is given. Hybrid models using bulk descriptors and fragmental descriptors do significantly better in modeling CYP450 inhibition, than bulk property QSAR descriptors alone.