Identification of novel lysine demethylase 5-selective inhibitors by inhibitor-based fragment merging strategy.

Histone lysine demethylases (KDMs) have drawn much attention as targets of therapeutic agents. KDM5 proteins, which are Fe(II)/α-ketoglutarate-dependent demethylases, are associated with oncogenesis and drug resistance in cancer cells, and KDM5-selective inhibitors are expected to be anticancer drugs. However, few cell-active KDM5 inhibitors have been reported and there is an obvious need to discover more. In this study, we pursued the identification of highly potent and cell-active KDM5-selective inhibitors. Based on the reported KDM5 inhibitors, we designed several compounds by strategically merging two fragments for competitive inhibition with α-ketoglutarate and for KDM5-selective inhibition. Among them, compounds 10 and 13, which have a 3-cyano pyrazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidin-7-one scaffold, exhibited strong KDM5-inhibitory activity and significant KDM5 selectivity. In cellular assays using human lung cancer cell line A549, 10 and 13 increased the levels of trimethylated lysine 4 on histone H3, which is a specific substrate of KDM5s, and induced growth inhibition of A549 cells. These results should provide a basis for the development of cell-active KDM5 inhibitors to highlight the validity of our inhibitor-based fragment merging strategy.

One-pot transformation of Ph2P(O)-protected ethynes: deprotection followed by transition metal-catalyzed coupling.

Ph2P(O)-protected ethynes were successfully transformed to arylethynes in one-pot manner through t-BuOK-catalyzed deprotection followed by Sonogashira coupling with aryl halide. The arylethynes were obtained similarly by Ph2P(O)-deprotection, stannylation of the resulting terminal ethynes, and Migita-Kosugi-Stille coupling. Deprotection followed by intramolecular Eglinton coupling could be carried out in one-pot to provide cyclic butadiynes.

Photoinduced charge-transfer dynamics of sequentially aligned donor-acceptor systems in an ionic liquid.

Photoinduced charge separation processes of linear phenyleneethynylene derivatives (PEN) with different sequences of electron-withdrawing perfluorophenyl groups (A) and electron-donating phenyl groups (D) were investigated in an ionic liquid (IL), BmimTFSI, by picosecond time-resolved fluorescence (TRF) and transient absorption (TA) spectroscopies. Very rapid photoinduced charge separation within 10 ps in AADD was followed by the stabilization of the charge-transfer (CT) state by the solvation, while the excited states in ADAD and ADDA were ascribable to the locally excited (LE) state. Equilibrium between the LE and CT states was established for DAAD with time constants of forward and backward processes much faster than the solvation time. The relative population of the CT state increases with time owing to the dynamic stabilization of the CT state by the solvation. The elementary charge separation process, the increase in the CT population, and their relation to the solvation time were discussed.