FLT3 inhibitors in AML: are we there yet?

FMS-like tyrosine kinase 3 (FLT3) is the most frequently mutated gene in AML. Thirty percent of patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) harbor activating mutations in FLT3, either internal tandem duplication mutations in the juxtamembrane domain (FLT3-ITD) or point mutations in the tyrosine kinase domain (FLT3 TKD). Small molecule FLT3 inhibitors have emerged as an attractive therapeutic option in patients with FLT3 mutations; however, the clinical activity of early inhibitors was limited by a lack of selectivity, potency and unfavorable pharmacokinetic properties. Newer agents such as quizartinib have improved potency and selectivity associated with much higher bone marrow response rates; however, response duration is limited by the development of secondary resistance. We will review here a number of FLT3 inhibitors that have been evaluated in clinical trials and discuss challenges facing the use of these agents in AML.

Crenolanib is a selective type I pan-FLT3 inhibitor.

Tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) represent transformative therapies for several malignancies. Two critical features necessary for maximizing TKI tolerability and response duration are kinase selectivity and invulnerability to resistance-conferring kinase domain (KD) mutations in the intended target. No prior TKI has demonstrated both of these properties. Aiming to maximize selectivity, medicinal chemists have largely sought to create TKIs that bind to an inactive (type II) kinase conformation. Here we demonstrate that the investigational type I TKI crenolanib is a potent inhibitor of Fms tyrosine kinase-3 (FLT3) internal tandem duplication, a validated therapeutic target in human acute myeloid leukemia (AML), as well as all secondary KD mutants previously shown to confer resistance to the first highly active FLT3 TKI quizartinib. Moreover, crenolanib is highly selective for FLT3 relative to the closely related protein tyrosine kinase KIT, demonstrating that simultaneous FLT3/KIT inhibition, a prominent feature of other clinically active FLT3 TKIs, is not required for AML cell cytotoxicity in vitro and may contribute to undesirable toxicity in patients. A saturation mutagenesis screen of FLT3-internal tandem duplication failed to recover any resistant colonies in the presence of a crenolanib concentration well below what has been safely achieved in humans, suggesting that crenolanib has the potential to suppress KD mutation-mediated clinical resistance. Crenolanib represents the first TKI to exhibit both kinase selectivity and invulnerability to resistance-conferring KD mutations, which is unexpected of a type I inhibitor. Crenolanib has significant promise for achieving deep and durable responses in FLT3-mutant AML, and may have a profound impact upon future medicinal chemistry efforts in oncology.