Discovery of an Orally Efficacious Imidazo[5,1-f][1,2,4]triazine Dual Inhibitor of IGF-1R and IR

The Exploration of Chirality for Improved Druggability within the Human Kinome

Chirality is important in drug discovery because stereoselective drugs can ameliorate therapeutic difficulties including adverse toxicity and poor pharmacokinetic profiles. The human kinome, a major druggable enzyme class has been exploited to treat a wide range of diseases. However, many kinase inhibitors are planar and overlap in chemical space, which leads to selectivity and toxicity issues. By exploring chirality within the kinome, a new iteration of kinase inhibitors is being developed to better utilize the three-dimensional nature of the kinase active site. Exploration into novel chemical space, in turn, will also improve drug solubility and pharmacokinetic profiles. This perspective explores the role of chirality to improve kinome druggability and will serve as a resource for pioneering kinase inhibitor development to address current therapeutic needs.

Discovery of novel insulin-like growth factor-1 receptor inhibitors with unique time-dependent binding kinetics

This letter describes a series of small molecule inhibitors of IGF-1R with unique time-dependent binding kinetics and slow off-rates. Structure-activity and structure-kinetic relationships were elucidated and guided further optimizations within the series, culminating in compound 2. With an IGF-1R dissociative half-life (t 1/2) of >100 h, compound 2 demonstrated significant and extended PD effects in conjunction with tumor growth inhibition in xenograft models at a remarkably low and intermittent dose, which correlated with the observed in vitro slow off-rate properties.

Small-molecule ATP-competitive dual IGF-1R and insulin receptor inhibitors: structural insights, chemical diversity and molecular evolution

IGF-1R has been recognized as a major target in cancer drug discovery due to its strong implications in various stages of tumorigenesis based on accumulated preclinical data. Recent research on compensatory crosstalk between IGF-1R and insulin receptor (IR) signaling pathways suggests that targeting both IGF-1R and IR should result in a more therapeutically beneficial response, than targeting IGF-1R alone (e.g., IGF-1R-specific antibodies). These findings provided biological rationale and opened the door to the discovery of a variety of small-molecule dual IGF-1R and IR inhibitors. In this review we summarize the recent developments in this field, with a focus on binding modes and binding interactions of these inhibitors with IGF-1R and/or IR. Selectivity of these inhibitors has been discussed in this context as well. This is an important area to be discussed since one of the major challenges in kinase inhibitor drug discovery is to build an optimal selectivity profile based on biological rationale.