1. Academic Validation
  2. Design and Synthesis of Pyridone-Containing 3,4-Dihydroisoquinoline-1(2H)-ones as a Novel Class of Enhancer of Zeste Homolog 2 (EZH2) Inhibitors

Design and Synthesis of Pyridone-Containing 3,4-Dihydroisoquinoline-1(2H)-ones as a Novel Class of Enhancer of Zeste Homolog 2 (EZH2) Inhibitors

  • J Med Chem. 2016 Sep 22;59(18):8306-25. doi: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.6b00515.
Pei-Pei Kung Eugene Rui Simon Bergqvist Patrick Bingham John Braganza Michael Collins Mei Cui Wade Diehl Dac Dinh Connie Fan Valeria R Fantin Hovhannes J Gukasyan Wenyue Hu Buwen Huang Susan Kephart Cody Krivacic Robert A Kumpf Gary Li Karen A Maegley Indrawan McAlpine Lisa Nguyen Sacha Ninkovic Martha Ornelas Michael Ryskin 1 Stephanie Scales Scott Sutton John Tatlock Dominique Verhelle Fen Wang Peter Wells Martin Wythes Shinji Yamazaki Brian Yip Xiu Yu Luke Zehnder Wei-Guo Zhang 1 Robert A Rollins 1 Martin Edwards
Affiliations

Affiliation

  • 1 Pfizer Global Research and Development , 401 North Middletown Road, Pearl River, New York 10965, United States.
Abstract

A new enhancer of zeste homolog 2 (EZH2) inhibitor series comprising a substituted phenyl ring joined to a dimethylpyridone moiety via an amide linkage has been designed. A preferential amide torsion that improved the binding properties of the compounds was identified for this series via computational analysis. Cyclization of the amide linker resulted in a six-membered lactam analogue, compound 18. This transformation significantly improved the ligand efficiency/potency of the cyclized compound relative to its acyclic analogue. Additional optimization of the lactam-containing EZH2 inhibitors focused on lipophilic efficiency (LipE) improvement, which provided compound 31. Compound 31 displayed improved LipE and on-target potency in both biochemical and cellular readouts relative to compound 18. Inhibitor 31 also displayed robust in vivo antitumor growth activity and dose-dependent de-repression of EZH2 target genes.

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