Synthesis and Biological Validation of a Harmine-Based, Central Nervous System (CNS)-Avoidant, Selective, Human β-Cell Regenerative Dual-Specificity Tyrosine Phosphorylation-Regulated Kinase A (DYRK1A) Inhibitor
作者:Kunal Kumar、Peng Wang、Jessica Wilson、Viktor Zlatanic、Cecilia Berrouet、Susmita Khamrui、Cody Secor、Ethan A. Swartz、Michael Lazarus、Roberto Sanchez、Andrew F. Stewart、Adolfo Garcia-Ocana、Robert J. DeVita
DOI:10.1021/acs.jmedchem.9b01379
日期:2020.3.26
Recently, our group identified that harmine is able to induce beta-cell proliferation both in vitro and in vivo, mediated via the DYRK1A-NFAT pathway. Since, harmine suffers from a lack of selectivity, both against other kinases and CNS off-targets, we therefore sought to expand structure-activity relationships for harmine's DYRK1A activity, to enhance selectivity for off-targets while retaining human beta-cell proliferation activity. We carried out optimization of the 9-N-position of harmine to synthesize 29 harmine-based analogs. Several novel inhibitors showed excellent DYRK1A inhibition and human beta-cell proliferation capability. An optimized DYRK1A inhibitor, 2-2c, was identified as a novel, efficacious in vivo lead candidate. 2-2c also demonstrates improved selectivity for kinases and CNS off-targets, as well as in vivo efficacy for beta-cell proliferation and regeneration at lower doses than harmine. Collectively, these findings demonstrate that 2-2c is a much improved in vivo lead candidate as compared to harmine for the treatment of diabetes.