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Publication Abstract from PubMed

Inhibition of integrin alphavbeta6 is a promising approach to the treatment of fibrotic disease such as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Screening a small library combining head groups that stabilize the bent-closed conformation of integrin alphaIIbbeta3 with alphav integrin binding motifs resulted in the identification of hit compounds that bind the bent-closed conformation of alphavbeta6. Crystal structures of these compounds bound to alphavbeta6 and related integrins revealed opportunities to increase potency and selectivity, and these efforts were accelerated using accurate free energy perturbation (FEP+) calculations. Optimization of PK parameters including permeability, bioavailability, clearance, and half-life resulted in the discovery of development candidate MORF-627, a highly selective inhibitor of alphavbeta6 that stabilizes the bent-closed conformation and has good oral PK. Unfortunately, the compound showed toxicity in a 28-day NHP safety study, precluding further development. Nevertheless, MORF-627 is a useful tool compound for studying the biology of integrin alphavbeta6.

The Discovery of MORF-627, a Highly Selective Conformationally-Biased Zwitterionic Integrin alphavbeta6 Inhibitor for Fibrosis.,Harrison BA, Dowling JE, Bursavich MG, Troast DM, Chong KM, Hahn KN, Zhong C, Mulvihill KM, Nguyen H, Monroy MF, Qiao Q, Sosa B, Mostafavi S, Smukste I, Lee D, Cappellucci L, Konopka EH, Nowakowski P, Stawski L, Senices M, Nguyen MH, Kapoor PS, Luus L, Sullivan A, Bortolato A, Svensson M, Hickey ER, Konze KD, Day T, Kim B, Negri A, Gerasyuto AI, Moy TI, Lu M, Ray AS, Wang L, Cui D, Lin FY, Lippa B, Rogers BN J Med Chem. 2024 Nov 14;67(21):18656-18681. doi: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.4c01851. , Epub 2024 Oct 24. PMID:39446989^[1]

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