PMID: 22537109

Authors:

Qin J, Xie P, Ventocilla C, Zhou G, Vultur A, Chen Q, Liu Q, Herlyn M, Winkler JD, Marmorstein R

Title:

Identification of a novel family of BRAFV600E inhibitors.

Journal:

J Med Chem. 2012 Apr 26.

Abstract:

The BRAF oncoprotein is mutated in about half of malignant melanomas and other cancers, and a kinase activating single valine to glutamate substitution at residue 600 (BRAFV600E) accounts for over 90% of BRAF-mediated cancers. Several BRAFV600E inhibitors have been developed, although they harbor some liabilities, thus motivating the development of other BRAFV600E inhibitor options. We report here the use of an ELISA based high-throughput screen to identify a family of related quinolol/naphthol compounds that preferentially inhibit BRAFV600E over BRAFWT and other kinases. We also report the X-ray crystal structure of a BRAF/quinolol complex revealing the mode of inhibition, employ structure-based medicinal chemistry efforts to prepare naphthol analogs that inhibit BRAFV600E in vitro with IC50 values in the 80-200 nM under saturating ATP concentrations, and demonstrate that these compounds inhibit MAPK signaling in melanoma cells. Prospects for improving the potency and selectivity of these inhibitors are discussed.