作者:Louisa J. Phillipson、David H. Segal、Tracy L. Nero、Michael W. Parker、Soo San Wan、Melanie de Silva、Mark A. Guthridge、Andrew H. Wei、Christopher J. Burns
DOI:10.1016/j.bmc.2015.08.035
日期:2015.10
The serine-threonine kinase CDK9 is a target of emerging interest for the development of anti-cancer drugs. There are multiple lines of evidence linking CDK9 activity to cancer, including the essential role this kinase plays in transcriptional regulation through phosphorylation of the C-terminal domain (CTD) of RNA polymerase II. Indeed, inhibition of CDK9 has been shown to result in a reduction of short-lived proteins such as the pro-survival protein Mcl-1 in malignant cells leading to the induction of apoptosis. In this work we report our initial studies towards the discovery of selective CDK9 inhibitors, starting from the known multi-kinase inhibitor PIK-75 which possesses potent CDK9 activity. Our series is based on a pyrazolo[1,5-a] pyrimidine nucleus and, importantly, the resultant lead compound 18b is devoid of the structural liabilities present in PIK-75 and possesses greater selectivity. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.