Discovery of 4-amino-N-[(1S)-1-(4-chlorophenyl)-3-hydroxypropyl]-1-(7H-pyrrolo[2,3-d]pyrimidin-4-yl)piperidine-4-carboxamide (AZD5363), an orally bioavailable, potent inhibitor of Akt kinases.

Wide-ranging exploration of analogues of an ATP-competitive pyrrolopyrimidine inhibitor of Akt led to the discovery of clinical candidate AZD5363, which showed increased potency, reduced hERG affinity, and higher selectivity against the closely related AGC kinase ROCK. This compound demonstrated good preclinical drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics (DMPK) properties and, after oral dosing, showed pharmacodynamic knockdown of phosphorylation of Akt and downstream biomarkers in vivo, and inhibition of tumor growth in a breast cancer xenograft model.

Novel thienopyrimidine and thiazolopyrimidine kinase inhibitors with activity against Tie-2 in vitro and in vivo.

The SAR and improvement in potency against Tie2 of novel thienopyrimidine and thiazolopyrimidine kinase inhibitors are reported. The crystal structure of one of these compounds bound to the Tie-2 kinase domain is consistent with the SAR. These compounds have moderate potency in cellular assays of Tie-2 inhibition, good physical properties, DMPK, and show evidence of in vivo inhibition of Tie-2.

Discovery of imidazole vinyl pyrimidines as a novel class of kinase inhibitors which inhibit Tie-2 and are orally bioavailable.

Tie-2 is a receptor tyrosine kinase which is involved in angiogenesis and thereby growth of human tumours. The discovery and SAR of a novel class of imidazole-vinyl-pyrimidine kinase inhibitors, which inhibit Tie-2 in vitro is reported. Their synthesis was carried out by condensation of imidazole aldehydes with methyl pyrimidines. These compounds are lead-like, with low molecular weight, good physical properties and oral bioavailability.

Aminoimidazolylmethyluracil analogues as potent inhibitors of thymidine phosphorylase and their bioreductive nitroimidazolyl prodrugs.

Thymidine phosphorylase (TP) is an important target enzyme for cancer chemotherapy because it is expressed at high levels in the hypoxic regions of many tumors and inhibitors of TP have been shown in animal model studies to inhibit angiogenesis and metastasis, and to promote tumor cell apoptosis. The 5-halo-6-[(2'-aminoimidazol-1'-yl)methyl]uracils (3, X = Cl, Br) are very potent inhibitors of E. coli and human TP with IC(50) values of approximately 20 nM when the enzyme concentration is approximately 40 nM. Their 4'-aminoimidazol-1'-yl analogues (4, X = Cl, Br) are >350-fold less active with IC(50) values of approximately 7 microM. The 5-unsubstituted analogues (3 and 4, X = H) were both less active than their 5-halo derivatives. Determination of pK(a) values and molecular modeling studies of these compounds in the active site of human TP was used to rationalize their activities. The finding that 3, X = Br has a poor pharmacokinetic (PK) profile in mice, coupled with the desire for tumor selectivity, led us to design prodrugs. The corresponding 2'-nitroimidazol-1'-ylmethyluracils (5, X = Cl, Br) are >1000-fold less active (IC(50) 22-24 microM) than their 2'-amino analogues and are reduced to the 2'-amino inhibitors (3, X = Cl, Br) by xanthine oxidase (XO). As XO is also highly expressed in many tumors, the 2'-nitro prodrugs have the potential to selectively deliver the potent 2'-aminoimidazol-1'-yl TP inhibitors into hypoxic solid tumors.

Crystal structure of human thymidine phosphorylase in complex with a small molecule inhibitor.

Human thymidine phosphorylase (HTP), also known as platelet-derived endothelial cell growth factor (PD-ECGF), is overexpressed in certain solid tumors where it is linked to poor prognosis. HTP expression is utilized for certain chemotherapeutic strategies and is also thought to play a role in tumor angiogenesis. We determined the structure of HTP bound to the small molecule inhibitor 5-chloro-6-[1-(2-iminopyrrolidinyl) methyl] uracil hydrochloride (TPI). The inhibitor appears to mimic the substrate transition state, which may help explain the potency of this inhibitor and the catalytic mechanism of pyrimidine nucleotide phosphorylases (PYNPs). Further, we have confirmed the validity of the HTP structure as a template for structure-based drug design by predicting binding affinities for TPI and other known HTP inhibitors using in silico docking techniques. This work provides the first structural insight into the binding mode of any inhibitor to this important drug target and forms the basis for designing novel inhibitors for use in anticancer therapy.

Synthesis of cytidine ribonucleotides by stepwise assembly of the heterocycle on a sugar phosphate.

Although various syntheses of the nucleic acid bases exist and ribose is a product of the formose reaction, no prebiotically plausible methods for attaching pyrimidine bases to ribose to give nucleosides have been described. Kinetic and thermodynamic factors are thought to mitigate against such condensation reactions in aqueous solution. This inability to produce pyrimidine nucleosides and hence nucleotides is a major stumbling block of the "RNA World" hypothesis and has led to suggestions of alternative nucleic acids as evolutionary precursors to RNA. Here, we show that a process in which the base is assembled in stages on a sugar phosphate can produce cytidine nucleotides. The sequential action of cyanamide and cyanoacetylene on arabinose-3-phosphate produces cytidine-2',3'-cyclophosphate and arabinocytidine-3'-phosphate.