HER2-positive (HER2+) breast cancer is defined by HER2 oncogene amplification on chromosome 17q12 and accounts for 15–20% population of breast-cancer patients. Therapeutic anti-HER2 antibody such as trastuzumab is used as the first-line therapy for HER2-positive breast cancers. However, more than 50% of the patients respond poorly to trastuzumab, illustrating that novel therapy is warranted to overcome the resistance. We previously reported that in the majority of HER2+ breast-cancer patients, CDK12 is co-amplified on 17q12 and involved in developing tumors and trastuzumab resistance, proposing CDK12 as a potential drug target for HER2+ breast cancers. Here, we designed and synthesized novel 2,6,9-trisubstituted purines as potent CDK12 inhibitors showing strong, equipotent antiproliferative activity against trastuzumab-sensitive HER2+ SK-Br3 cells and trastuzumab-resistant HER2+ HCC1954 cells (GI50 values < 50 nM) both of which express a high level of CDK12. Two potent analogue 30d and 30e at 40, 200 nM greatly downregulated the levels of cyclinK and Pol II p-CTD (Ser2), as well as the expression of CDK12 downstream genes (IRS1 and WNT1) in a dose-dependent manner. We also observed structure-property relationship for a subset of potent analogues, and found that 30e is highly stable in liver microsomes with lack of CYP inhibition. In addition, 30d exhibited a synergy with trastuzumab in the both cells, suggesting that our inhibitors could be applied to alleviate trastuzumab-resistance of HER2+ breast cancers and escalate the efficacy of trastuzumab as well. Our study may provide insight into developing a novel therapy for HER2+ breast cancers.
HER2阳性(HER2+)乳腺癌是由17q12染色体上HER2癌基因扩增定义的,占乳腺癌患者人群的15-20%。治疗HER2阳性乳腺癌的一线疗法是使用抗HER2抗体如曲妥珠单抗。然而,超过50%的患者对曲妥珠单抗反应不佳,说明需要新的治疗方法来克服耐药性。我们先前报道,在大多数HER2+乳腺癌患者中,CDK12在17q12上共扩增,并参与肿瘤和曲妥珠单抗耐药性的发展,因此建议CDK12作为HER2+乳腺癌的潜在药物靶点。在这里,我们设计和合成了新型2,6,9-三取代嘌呤作为强效CDK12抑制剂,对曲妥珠单抗敏感的HER2+ SK-Br3细胞和曲妥珠单抗耐药的HER2+ HCC1954细胞(GI50值<50 nM),都表现出强大、等效的抗增殖活性,这两种细胞都表达高水平的CDK12。两种强效类似物30d和30e在40、200 nM时,明显降低了cyclinK和Pol II p-CTD(Ser2)的水平,以及CDK12下游基因(IRS1和WNT1)的表达,呈剂量依赖性。我们还观察到一些强效类似物的结构-性质关系,并发现30e在肝微粒体中非常稳定,没有CYP抑制作用。此外,30d在两种细胞中与曲妥珠单抗表现出协同作用,表明我们的抑制剂可用于减轻HER2+乳腺癌对曲妥珠单抗的耐药性,并提高曲妥珠单抗的疗效。我们的研究可能为HER2+乳腺癌的新型治疗提供洞见。