Epidithiodiketopiperazine as a pharmacophore for protein lysine methyltransferase G9a inhibitors: reducing cytotoxicity by structural simplification.

Chaetocin (1), a structurally complex epidithiodiketopiperazine (ETP) alkaloid produced by Chaetomium minutum, is a potent inhibitor of protein lysine methyltransferase G9a, which plays important roles in many biological processes. Here we present our synthetic investigations to identify a simple prototype G9a inhibitor structure based on structure-activity relationship (SAR) studies on chaetocin derivatives. The simple derivative PS-ETP-1 (14) was found to be a potent G9a inhibitor with greatly reduced cytotoxicity.

Total synthesis of (+)-chaetocin and its analogues: their histone methyltransferase G9a inhibitory activity.

The first total synthesis of (+)-chaetocin has been accomplished in nine steps starting from known N-Cbz-N-Me-serine using radical alpha-bromination reaction of diketopiperazine 10 and Co(I)-mediated reductive dimerization reaction of 12 as key reactions. The enantiomers show comparable inhibitory activity toward histone methyltransferase (HMT) G9a, but analogues without the sulfur functionality are inactive.

Unnatural enantiomer of chaetocin shows strong apoptosis-inducing activity through caspase-8/caspase-3 activation.

Chaetocin, a natural product isolated from Chaetomium species fungi, was reported to have various biological activities, including antitumor and antifungal activities. Recently, we reported the first total synthesis of chaetocin and its derivatives. Here, we examined the cell-death-inducing activity of these compounds in human leukemia HL-60 cells. The unnatural enantiomer of chaetocin (ent-chaetocin) was more potent than chaetocin, and was found to induce apoptosis through the caspase-8/caspase-3 activation pathway.

An enantiopure cyclophane-type imidazole with no central but planar chirality.

An enantiopure cyclophane-type imidazole with planar chirality was synthesized, which was expected to serve as a useful component for the development of novel chiral molecular devices, such as ligands, organocatalysts, and receptors.

Docking and Linking of Fragments To Discover Jumonji Histone Demethylase Inhibitors.

Development of tool molecules that inhibit Jumonji demethylases allows for the investigation of cancer-associated transcription. While scaffolds such as 2,4-pyridinedicarboxylic acid (2,4-PDCA) are potent inhibitors, they exhibit limited selectivity. To discover new inhibitors for the KDM4 demethylases, enzymes overexpressed in several cancers, we docked a library of 600,000 fragments into the high-resolution structure of KDM4A. Among the most interesting chemotypes were the 5-aminosalicylates, which docked in two distinct but overlapping orientations. Docking poses informed the design of covalently linked fragment compounds, which were further derivatized. This combined approach improved affinity by ∼ 3 log-orders to yield compound 35 (Ki = 43 nM). Several hybrid inhibitors were selective for KDM4C over the related enzymes FIH, KDM2A, and KDM6B while lacking selectivity against the KDM3 and KDM5 subfamilies. Cocrystal structures corroborated the docking predictions. This study extends the use of structure-based docking from fragment discovery to fragment linking optimization, yielding novel KDM4 inhibitors.