1. Academic Validation
  2. Discovery of an orally bioavailable small molecule inhibitor of prosurvival B-cell lymphoma 2 proteins

Discovery of an orally bioavailable small molecule inhibitor of prosurvival B-cell lymphoma 2 proteins

  • J Med Chem. 2008 Nov 13;51(21):6902-15. doi: 10.1021/jm800669s.
Cheol-Min Park 1 Milan Bruncko Jessica Adickes Joy Bauch Hong Ding Aaron Kunzer Kennan C Marsh Paul Nimmer Alexander R Shoemaker Xiaohong Song Stephen K Tahir Christin Tse Xilu Wang Michael D Wendt Xiufen Yang Haichao Zhang Stephen W Fesik Saul H Rosenberg Steven W Elmore
Affiliations

Affiliation

  • 1 Cancer Research, Global Pharmaceutical Research and Development, Abbott Laboratories, 100 Abbott Park Road, Abbott Park, Illinois 60064, USA.
Abstract

Overexpression of prosurvival proteins such as Bcl-2 and Bcl-X L has been correlated with tumorigenesis and resistance to chemotherapy, and thus, the development of antagonists of these proteins may provide a novel means for the treatment of Cancer. We recently described the discovery of 1 (ABT-737), which binds Bcl-2, Bcl-X L, and Bcl-W with high affinity, shows robust antitumor activity in murine tumor xenograft models, but is not orally bioavailable. Herein, we report that targeted modifications at three key positions of 1 resulted in a 20-fold improvement in the pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic relationship (PK/PD) between oral exposure (AUC) and in vitro efficacy in human tumor cell lines (EC 50). The resulting compound, 2 (ABT-263), is orally efficacious in an established xenograft model of human small cell lung Cancer, inducing complete tumor regressions in all Animals. Compound 2 is currently in multiple phase 1 clinical trials in patients with small cell lung Cancer and hematological malignancies.

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