PMID: 25768698

Authors:

Rothweiler U, Eriksson J, Stensen W, Leeson F, Engh RA, Svendsen JS

Title:

Luciferin and derivatives as a DYRK selective scaffold for the design of protein kinase inhibitors.

Journal:

Eur J Med Chem. 2015 Feb 25;94:140-148. doi: 10.1016/j.ejmech.2015.02.035.

Abstract:

D-Luciferin is widely used as a substrate in luciferase catalysed bioluminescence assays for in vitro studies. However, little is known about cross reactivity and potential interference of D-luciferin with other enzymes. We serendipitously found that firefly luciferin inhibited the CDK2/Cyclin A protein kinase. Inhibition profiling of D-luciferin over a 103-protein kinase panel showed significant inhibition of a small set of protein kinases, in particular the DYRK-family, but also other members of the CMGC-group, including ERK8 and CK2. Inhibition profiling on a 16-member focused library derived from D-luciferin confirms that D-luciferin represents a DYRK-selective chemotype of fragment-like molecular weight. Thus, observation of its inhibitory activity and the initial SAR information reported here promise to be useful for further design of protein kinase inhibitors with related scaffolds.