Synthesis and Structure-Activity relationships of cyclin-dependent kinase 11 inhibitors based on a diaminothiazole scaffold

CDK11, a splicing-associated kinase regulating gene expression

The ability of a cell to properly express its genes depends on optimal transcription and splicing. RNA polymerase II (RNAPII) transcribes protein-coding genes and produces pre-mRNAs, which undergo, largely co-transcriptionally, intron excision by the spliceosome complex. Spliceosome activation is a major control step, leading to a catalytically active complex. Recent work has showed that cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK)11 regulates spliceosome activation via the phosphorylation of SF3B1, a core spliceosome component. Thus, CDK11 arises as a major coordinator of gene expression in metazoans due to its role in the rate-limiting step of pre-mRNA splicing. This review outlines the evolution of CDK11 and SF3B1 and their emerging roles in splicing regulation. It also discusses how CDK11 and its inhibition affect transcription and cell cycle progression.

Crystal structure of the CDK11 kinase domain bound to the small-molecule inhibitor OTS964

CDK11 is a cyclin-dependent kinase that controls proliferation by regulating transcription, RNA splicing, and the cell cycle. As its activity is increasingly associated with cancer, CDK11 is an attractive target for the development of small-molecule inhibitors. However, the development of CDK11 inhibitors with limited off-target effects against other CDKs poses a challenge based on the high conservation of sequence across family members. OTS964 is notable as it displays a measure of specificity for CDK11 in cells. To understand the basis for OTS964's specificity for CDK11, we solved a 2.6 Å crystal structure of the CDK11 kinase domain bound to OTS964. Despite the absence of cyclin, CDK11 adopts an active-like conformation when bound to OTS964. We identified amino acids likely to contribute to the specificity of OTS964 for CDK11 and assessed their contribution to OTS964 binding by isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) in vitro and by resistance to OTS964 in cells.