1. Academic Validation
  2. Discovery of N-Trisubstituted Pyrimidine Derivatives as Type I RET and RET Gatekeeper Mutant Inhibitors with a Novel Kinase Binding Pose

Discovery of N-Trisubstituted Pyrimidine Derivatives as Type I RET and RET Gatekeeper Mutant Inhibitors with a Novel Kinase Binding Pose

  • J Med Chem. 2022 Jan 27;65(2):1536-1551. doi: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.1c01280.
Lingtian Zhang 1 Marialuisa Moccia 2 David C Briggs 3 Jaideep B Bharate 1 Naga Rajiv Lakkaniga 4 Phillip Knowles 3 Wei Yan 1 Phuc Tran 1 Anupreet Kharbanda 1 Xiuqi Wang 1 Yuet-Kin Leung 5 Brendan Frett 1 Massimo Santoro 2 Neil Q McDonald 3 6 Francesca Carlomagno 2 7 Hong-Yu Li 1
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, Arkansas 72205, United States.
  • 2 Dipartimento di Medicina Molecolare e Biotecnologie Mediche, Università di Napoli "Federico II", 80131 Napoli, Italia.
  • 3 Signalling and Structural Biology Laboratory, The Francis Crick Institute, London NW1 1AT, U.K.
  • 4 Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California 92037, United States.
  • 5 Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology, College of Medicine, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, Arkansas 72205, United States.
  • 6 Department of Biological Sciences, Institute of Structural and Molecular Biology, Birkbeck College, London WC1E 7HX, U.K.
  • 7 Istituto di Endocrinologia ed Oncologia Sperimentale del CNR, 80131 Napoli, Italia.
Abstract

Mutations of the rearranged during transfection (RET) kinase are frequently reported in Cancer, which make it as an attractive therapeutic target. Herein, we discovered a series of N-trisubstituted pyrimidine derivatives as potent inhibitors for both wild-type (wt) RET and RETV804M, which is a resistant mutant for several FDA-approved inhibitors. The X-ray structure of a representative inhibitor with RET revealed that the compound binds in a unique pose that bifurcates beneath the P-loop and confirmed the compound as a type I inhibitor. Through the structure-activity relationship (SAR) study, compound 20 was identified as a lead compound, showing potent inhibition of both RET and RETV804M. Additionally, compound 20 displayed potent antiproliferative activity of CCDC6-RET-driven LC-2/ad cells. Analysis of RET phosphorylation indicated that biological activity was mediated by RET inhibition. Collectively, N-trisubstituted pyrimidine derivatives could serve as scaffolds for the discovery and development of potent inhibitors of type I RET and its gatekeeper mutant for the treatment of RET-driven cancers.

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