PMID: 25000588
Authors:
George DM, Breinlinger EC, Friedman M, Zhang Y, Wang J, Argiriadi M, Bansal-Pakala P, Barth M, Duignan DB, Honore P, Lang Q, Mittelstadt S, Potin D, Rundell L, Edmunds JJ
Title:
Discovery of Selective and Orally Bioavailable Protein Kinase Ctheta (PKCtheta) Inhibitors from a Fragment Hit.
Journal:
J Med Chem. 2014 Jul 7.
Abstract:
Protein kinase Ctheta (PKCtheta) regulates a key step in the activation of T cells. On the basis of its mechanism of action, inhibition of this kinase is hypothesized to serve as an effective therapy for autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA), inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), and psoriasis. Herein, the discovery of a small molecule PKCtheta inhibitor is described, starting from a fragment hit 1 and advancing to compound 41 through the use of structure-based drug design. Compound 41 demonstrates excellent in vitro activity, good oral pharmacokinetics, and efficacy in both an acute in vivo mechanistic model and a chronic in vivo disease model but suffers from tolerability issues upon chronic dosing.