NMS-P937, an orally available, specific small-molecule polo-like kinase 1 inhibitor with antitumor activity in solid and hematologic malignancies.

Polo-like kinase 1 (PLK1) is a serine/threonine protein kinase considered to be the master player of cell-cycle regulation during mitosis. It is indeed involved in centrosome maturation, bipolar spindle formation, chromosome separation, and cytokinesis. PLK1 is overexpressed in a variety of human tumors and its overexpression often correlates with poor prognosis. Although five different PLKs are described in humans, depletion or inhibition of kinase activity of PLK1 is sufficient to induce cell-cycle arrest and apoptosis in cancer cell lines and in xenograft tumor models. NMS-P937 is a novel, orally available PLK1-specific inhibitor. The compound shows high potency in proliferation assays having low nanomolar activity on a large number of cell lines, both from solid and hematologic tumors. NMS-P937 potently causes a mitotic cell-cycle arrest followed by apoptosis in cancer cell lines and inhibits xenograft tumor growth with clear PLK1-related mechanism of action at well-tolerated doses in mice after oral administration. In addition, NMS-P937 shows potential for combination in clinical settings with approved cytotoxic drugs, causing tumor regression in HT29 human colon adenocarcinoma xenografts upon combination with irinotecan and prolonged survival of animals in a disseminated model of acute myelogenous leukemia in combination with cytarabine. NMS-P937, with its favorable pharmacologic parameters, good oral bioavailability in rodent and nonrodent species, and proven antitumor activity in different preclinical models using a variety of dosing regimens, potentially provides a high degree of flexibility in dosing schedules and warrants investigation in clinical settings.

5-(2-amino-pyrimidin-4-yl)-1H-pyrrole and 2-(2-amino-pyrimidin-4-yl)-1,5,6,7-tetrahydro-pyrrolo[3,2-c]pyridin-4-one derivatives as new classes of selective and orally available Polo-like kinase 1 inhibitors.

The discovery and characterization of two new chemical classes of potent and selective Polo-like kinase 1 (PLK1) inhibitors is reported. For the most interesting compounds, we discuss the biological activities, crystal structures and preliminary pharmacokinetic parameters. The more advanced compounds inhibit PLK1 in the enzymatic assay at the nM level and exhibit good activity in cell proliferation on A2780 cells. Furthermore, these compounds showed high levels of selectivity on a panel of unrelated kinases, as well as against PLK2 and PLK3 isoforms. Additionally, the compounds show acceptable oral bioavailability in mice making these inhibitors suitable candidates for further in vivo activity studies.

Phosphorylation of TCTP as a marker for polo-like kinase-1 activity in vivo.

Polo-like kinase 1 (PLK1) is the master regulator of mitosis and a target for anticancer therapy. To develop a marker of PLK1 activity in cells and tumour tissues, this study focused on translational controlled tumour protein (TCTP) and identified serine 46 as a site phosphorylated by PLK1 in vitro. Using an antibody raised against phospho-TCTP-Ser46, it was demonstrated that phosphorylation at this site correlates with PLK1 level and kinase activity in cells. Moreover, PLK1 depletion by siRNA or inactivation by specific inhibitors caused a correspondent decrease in phospho-TCTP-Ser46 signal validating this site as a direct marker of PLK1. Using this marker, the study characterized PLK1 inhibitors in cells by setting up a high-content assay and finally immunohistochemical assay suitable for following inhibitor activity in preclinical tumour models and possibly in clinical studies was developed.

4,5-Dihydro-1H-pyrazolo[4,3-h]quinazolines as potent and selective Polo-like kinase 1 (PLK1) inhibitors.

A series of 4,5-dihydro-1H-pyrazolo[4,3-h]quinazoline derivatives was optimized as Polo-like kinase 1 inhibitors. Extensive SAR afforded a highly potent and selective PLK1 compound. The compound showed good antiproliferative activity when tested in a panel of tumor cell lines with PLK1 related mechanism of action and with good in vivo antitumor efficacy in two xenograft models after i.v. administration.

Inhibition of protein-protein interactions: the discovery of druglike beta-catenin inhibitors by combining virtual and biophysical screening.

The interaction between beta-catenin and Tcf family members is crucial for the Wnt signal transduction pathway, which is commonly mutated in cancer. This interaction extends over a very large surface area (4800 A(2)), and inhibiting such interactions using low molecular weight inhibitors is a challenge. However, protein surfaces frequently contain "hot spots," small patches that are the main mediators of binding affinity. By making tight interactions with a hot spot, a small molecule can compete with a protein. The Tcf3/Tcf4-binding surface on beta-catenin contains a well-defined hot spot around residues K435 and R469. A 17,700 compounds subset of the Pharmacia corporate collection was docked to this hot spot with the QXP program; 22 of the best scoring compounds were put into a biophysical (NMR and ITC) screening funnel, where specific binding to beta-catenin, competition with Tcf4 and finally binding constants were determined. This process led to the discovery of three druglike, low molecular weight Tcf4-competitive compounds with the tightest binder having a K(D) of 450 nM. Our approach can be used in several situations (e.g., when selecting compounds from external collections, when no biochemical functional assay is available, or when no HTS is envisioned), and it may be generally applicable to the identification of inhibitors of protein-protein interactions.