The invention relates to compounds of formula 1, tautomers and salts thereof, wherein R
1
, R
2
, R
3
, R
4
, and R
5
have the meanings indicated in the specification. These compounds are receptor tyrosine kinase EphB4 inhibitors useful for the treatment of angiogenesis dependent cancers and intraocular neovascular syndromes. The invention further relates to a method termed ALTA (anchor-based library tailoring) of selecting compounds from a large compound library for screening as EphB4 inhibitors by computational procedures.
Structure-Based Optimization of Potent and Selective Inhibitors of the Tyrosine Kinase Erythropoietin Producing Human Hepatocellular Carcinoma Receptor B4 (EphB4)
hydroxyl groups, to compound 4 has yielded the single-digit nanomolar inhibitor 66, with a remarkable improvement of the ligand efficiency from 0.26 to 0.37 kcal/(mol per non-hydrogen atom). Compound 66 shows very high affinity for a few other tyrosine kinases with threonine as gatekeeper residue (Abl, Lck, and Src). On the other hand, it is selective against kinases with a larger gatekeeper. A 45 ns molecular