1w82

Publication Abstract from PubMed

We describe the structure-guided optimization of the molecular fragments 2-amino-3-benzyloxypyridine 1 (IC(50) 1.3 mM) and 3-(2-(4-pyridyl)ethyl)indole 2 (IC(50) 35 microM) identified using X-ray crystallographic screening of p38alpha MAP kinase. Using two separate case studies, the article focuses on the key compounds synthesized, the structure-activity relationships and the binding mode observations made during this optimization process, resulting in two potent lead series that demonstrate significant increases in activity. We describe the process of compound elaboration either through the growing out from fragments into adjacent pockets or through the conjoining of overlapping fragments and demonstrate that we have exploited the mobile conserved activation loop, consisting in part of Asp168-Phe169-Gly170 (DFG), to generate significant improvements in potency and kinase selectivity.

Identification of novel p38alpha MAP kinase inhibitors using fragment-based lead generation.,Gill AL, Frederickson M, Cleasby A, Woodhead SJ, Carr MG, Woodhead AJ, Walker MT, Congreve MS, Devine LA, Tisi D, O'Reilly M, Seavers LC, Davis DJ, Curry J, Anthony R, Padova A, Murray CW, Carr RA, Jhoti H J Med Chem. 2005 Jan 27;48(2):414-26. PMID:15658855^[1]

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.