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Publication Abstract from PubMed

Attempts to directly drug the important oncogene KRAS have met with limited success despite numerous efforts across industry and academia. The KRAS(G12C) mutant represents an "Achilles heel" and has recently yielded to covalent targeting with small molecules that bind the mutant cysteine and create an allosteric pocket on GDP-bound RAS, locking it in an inactive state. A weak inhibitor at this site was optimized through conformational locking of a piperazine-quinazoline motif and linker modification. Subsequent introduction of a key methyl group to the piperazine resulted in enhancements in potency, permeability, clearance, and reactivity, leading to identification of a potent KRAS(G12C) inhibitor with high selectivity and excellent cross-species pharmacokinetic parameters and in vivo efficacy.

Structure-Based Design and Pharmacokinetic Optimization of Covalent Allosteric Inhibitors of the Mutant GTPase KRAS(G12C).,Kettle JG, Bagal SK, Bickerton S, Bodnarchuk MS, Breed J, Carbajo RJ, Cassar DJ, Chakraborty A, Cosulich S, Cumming I, Davies M, Eatherton A, Evans L, Feron L, Fillery S, Gleave ES, Goldberg FW, Harlfinger S, Hanson L, Howard M, Howells R, Jackson A, Kemmitt P, Kingston JK, Lamont S, Lewis HJ, Li S, Liu L, Ogg D, Phillips C, Polanski R, Robb G, Robinson D, Ross S, Smith JM, Tonge M, Whiteley R, Yang J, Zhang L, Zhao X J Med Chem. 2020 Feb 13. doi: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.9b01720. PMID:32023060^[1]

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