RESUMEN
Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is a myeloproliferative disease caused by bcr-abl1, a constitutively active tyrosine kinase fusion gene responsible for an abnormal proliferation of leukemic stem cells (LSCs). Inhibition of BCR-ABL1 kinase activity offers long-term relief to CML patients. However, for a proportion of them, BCR-ABL1 inhibition will become ineffective at treating the disease, and CML will progress to blast crisis (BC) CML with poor prognosis. BC-CML is often associated with excessive phosphorylated eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4E (eIF4E), which renders LSCs capable of proliferating via self-renewal, oblivious to BCR-ABL1 inhibition. In vivo, eIF4E is exclusively phosphorylated on Ser209 by MNK1/2. Consequently, a selective inhibitor of MNK1/2 should reduce the level of phosphorylated eIF4E and re-sensitize LSCs to BCR-ABL1 inhibition, thus hindering the proliferation of BC LSCs. We report herein the structure-activity relationships and pharmacokinetic properties of a selective MNK1/2 inhibitor clinical candidate, ETC-206, which in combination with dasatinib prevents BC-CML LSC self-renewal in vitro and enhances dasatinib antitumor activity in vivo.
Asunto(s)
Crisis Blástica/tratamiento farmacológico , Proliferación Celular , Péptidos y Proteínas de Señalización Intracelular/antagonistas & inhibidores , Leucemia Mielógena Crónica BCR-ABL Positiva/tratamiento farmacológico , Inhibidores de Proteínas Quinasas/farmacología , Proteínas Serina-Treonina Quinasas/antagonistas & inhibidores , Animales , Crisis Blástica/patología , Femenino , Humanos , Leucemia Mielógena Crónica BCR-ABL Positiva/patología , Ratones , Ratones SCID , Modelos Moleculares , Estructura Molecular , Conformación Proteica , Inhibidores de Proteínas Quinasas/química , Células Tumorales Cultivadas , Ensayos Antitumor por Modelo de XenoinjertoRESUMEN
Clinically used BCR-ABL1 inhibitors for the treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia do not eliminate leukemic stem cells (LSC). It has been shown that MNK1 and 2 inhibitors prevent phosphorylation of eIF4E and eliminate the self-renewal capacity of LSCs. Herein, we describe the identification of novel dual MNK1 and 2 and BCR-ABL1 inhibitors, starting from the known kinase inhibitor 2. Initial structure-activity relationship studies resulted in compound 27 with loss of BCR-ABL1 inhibition. Further modification led to orally bioavailable dual MNK1 and 2 and BCR-ABL1 inhibitors 53 and 54, which are efficacious in a mouse xenograft model and also reduce the level of phosphorylated eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4E in the tumor tissues. Kinase selectivity of these compounds is also presented.