Allosteric inhibitors of Bcr-abl–dependent cell proliferation

FJ Adrián, Q Ding, T Sim, A Velentza, C Sloan… - Nature chemical …, 2006 - nature.com
FJ Adrián, Q Ding, T Sim, A Velentza, C Sloan, Y Liu, G Zhang, W Hur, S Ding, P Manley…
Nature chemical biology, 2006nature.com
Chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) is a myeloproliferative disorder characterized at the
molecular level by the expression of Bcr-abl, a 210-kDa fusion protein with deregulated
tyrosine kinase activity. Encouraged by the clinical validation of Bcr-abl as the target for the
treatment of CML by imatinib, we sought to identify pharmacological agents that could target
this kinase by a distinct mechanism. We report the discovery of a new class of Bcr-abl
inhibitors using an unbiased differential cytotoxicity screen of a combinatorial kinase …
Abstract
Chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) is a myeloproliferative disorder characterized at the molecular level by the expression of Bcr-abl, a 210-kDa fusion protein with deregulated tyrosine kinase activity. Encouraged by the clinical validation of Bcr-abl as the target for the treatment of CML by imatinib, we sought to identify pharmacological agents that could target this kinase by a distinct mechanism. We report the discovery of a new class of Bcr-abl inhibitors using an unbiased differential cytotoxicity screen of a combinatorial kinase-directed heterocycle library. Compounds in this class (exemplified by GNF-2) show exclusive antiproliferative activity toward Bcr-abl–transformed cells, with potencies similar to imatinib, while showing no inhibition of the kinase activity of full-length or catalytic domain of c-abl. We propose that this new class of compounds inhibits Bcr-abl kinase activity through an allosteric non-ATP competitive mechanism.
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