PMID: 21992004

Authors:

Kwiatkowski N, Deng X, Wang J, Tan L, Villa F, Santaguida S, Huang HC, Mitchison T, Musacchio A, Gray N

Title:

Selective aurora kinase inhibitors identified using a taxol-induced checkpoint sensitivity screen.

Journal:

ACS Chem Biol. 2012 Jan 20;7(1):185-96. Epub 2011 Oct 21.

Abstract:

The members of the Aurora kinase family play critical roles in the regulation of the cell cycle and mitotic spindle assembly and have been intensively investigated as potential targets for a new class of anticancer drugs. We describe a new highly potent and selective class of Aurora kinase inhibitors discovered using a phenotypic cellular screen. Optimized inhibitors display many of the hallmarks of Aurora inhibition including endoreduplication, polyploidy, and loss of cell viability in cancer cells. Structure-activity relationships with respect to kinome-wide selectivity and guided by an Aurora B co-crystal structure resulted in the identification of key selectivity determinants and discovery of a subseries with selectivity toward Aurora A. A direct comparison of biochemical and cellular profiles with respect to published Aurora inhibitors including VX-680, AZD1152, MLN8054, and a pyrimidine-based compound from Genentech demonstrates that compounds 1 and 3 will become valuable additional pharmacological probes of Aurora-dependent functions.