PMID: 25589925

Authors:

Johnson CN, Berdini V, Beke L, Bonnet P, Brehmer D, Coyle JE, Day PJ, Frederickson M, Freyne EJ, Gilissen RA, Hamlett CC, Howard S, Meerpoel L, McMenamin R, Patel S, Rees DC, Sharff A, Sommen F, Wu T, Linders JT

Title:

Fragment-based discovery of type I inhibitors of maternal embryonic leucine zipper kinase.

Journal:

ACS Med Chem Lett. 2014 May 23;6(1):25-30. doi: 10.1021/ml5001245. eCollection, 2015 Jan 8.

Abstract:

Fragment-based drug design was successfully applied to maternal embryonic leucine zipper kinase (MELK). A low affinity (160 muM) fragment hit was identified, which bound to the hinge region with an atypical binding mode, and this was optimized using structure-based design into a low-nanomolar and cell-penetrant inhibitor, with a good selectivity profile, suitable for use as a chemical probe for elucidation of MELK biology.