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B. Barlaam et al. / Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett. 21 (2011) 2207–2211
Table 3
DMPK properties of compounds 12, 28 and 33
a
b
Compound
Human plasma
Fu (% free)
Rat pharmacokinetics
Dog pharmacokinetics
Cl (%lbf)
Vdss (L/kg)
F%
Cl (%lbf)
Vdss (L/kg)
F%
12
28
33
11
8.5
5.2
11
16
9
0.5
0.4
0.7
78
17
64
51
—
57
2.1
—
1.6
58
—
22
a
Male Han Wistar rats dosed at 1 or 2.5
Mean values for male and female beagle dogs dosed at 2 lmol/kg iv and 5 lmol/kg p.o.
l
mol/kg iv and 5 or 10 lmol/kg p.o.
b
cations. We believe this is a consequence of the higher sp2 charac-
ter of the morpholine nitrogen atom when its lone pair is conju-
gated with a heterocycle, thus reducing its solvation state in
water. The increased lipophilicity of 33 versus 12 is also apparent
from their relative protein binding in human plasma (see Table 3).
Compounds 12, 28 and 33 have been further evaluated in vivo
and Table 3 summarizes their pharmacokinetic properties. Com-
pound 28 demonstrated a modest oral bioavailability in the rat de-
spite a low plasma clearance whereas 12 and 33 displayed good
oral exposure. In the dog, both 12 and 33 had a moderate plasma
clearance but 12 proved to be superior to 33 with a better oral bio-
availability. When dosed orally in nude mouse, compound 12 dis-
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the following people for the prepara-
tion, purification and analysis of the compounds described herein:
Dominique Boucherot, Christian Delvare, Delphine Dorison-Duval,
Patrice Koza, Antoine Le Griffon, Françoise Magnien, Mickaël Mau-
det, Rémy Morgentin, Annie Olivier, Marie-Jeanne Pasquet, Jacques
Pelleter and Fabrice Renaud. We also acknowledge Sara Davenport
and Jon Wingfield for kinase activity determination, Eileen McCall
for insect cell supply, Anna Valentine, Hannah Pollard, Caroline
Trueman and Heather Haye for protein supply and Claire Brassing-
ton for protein crystallization.
played a very good exposure at 100 and 200
lmol/kg, with a
greater than proportional increase in AUC from a 10
lmol/kg dose
References and notes
(Table 4).
1. For recent reviews see: (a) Pasquale, E. B. Nat. Rev. Cancer 2010, 10, 165; (b)
Noren, N. K.; Pasquale, E. B. Cancer Res. 2007, 67, 3994.
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Gill, P. S. Blood 2006, 107, 2330.
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P. S. Am. J. Pathol. 2010, 176, 2029.
The broad kinase selectivity profile of 12 was assessed by mea-
suring its inhibitory activity in a panel of 70 protein kinases at a
concentration of 10 lM. Only three kinases were inhibited by more
than 80%, namely Src, LCK and CSK. These activities have been con-
firmed with a dose–response and 12 was found to be more potent
4. Wang, Y.; Nakayama, M.; Pitulescu, M. E.; Schmidt, T. S.; Bochenek, M. L.;
Sakakibara, A.; Adams, S.; Davy, A.; Deutsch, U.; Luethi, U.; Barberis, A.;
Benjamin, L. E.; Maekinen, T.; Nobes, C. D.; Adams, R. H. Nature 2010, 465, 483.
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Schmiedeberg, N.; Wood, J. M.; Furet, P.; Imbach, P. Angiogenesis 2010, 13, 259.
6. (a) Bardelle, C.; Cross, D.; Davenport, S.; Kettle, J. G.; Ko, E. J.; Leach, A. G.;
Mortlock, A.; Read, J.; Roberts, N. J.; Robins, P.; Williams, E. J. Bioorg. Med. Chem.
Lett. 2008, 18, 2776; (b) Bardelle, C.; Coleman, T.; Cross, D.; Davenport, S.;
Kettle, J. G.; Ko, E. J.; Leach, A. G.; Mortlock, A.; Read, J.; Roberts, N. J.; Robins, P.;
Williams, E. J. Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett. 2008, 18, 5717.
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Lambert-van der Brempt, C.; Olivier, A.; Read, J. Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett. 2010,
20, 6242.
8. Mitchell, S. A.; Danca, M. D.; Blomgren, P. A.; Darrow, J. W.; Currie, K. S.; Kropf, J.
E.; Lee, S. H.; Gallion, S. L.; Xiong, J.-M.; Pippin, D. A.; DeSimone, R. W.; Brittelli,
D. R.; Eustice, D. C.; Bourret, A.; Hill-Drzewi, M.; Maciejewski, P. M.; Elkin, L. L.
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on Src and LCK (IC50 <0.001
0.08 M). The activity of 12 against Src was further evaluated in
cell by measuring inhibition of proliferation of c-Src transfected
3T3 cells16 (IC50 0.010
M). Therefore compound 12 can be consid-
lM for both kinases) than on CSK (IC50
l
l
ered as a dual ephB4-Src kinase inhibitor with an excellent overall
selectivity profile.17
Finally, compound 12 was assessed in our CYP450 TDI assay,
with the expectation that removal of the bicyclic aniline present
in 1 and 2 would alleviate the tendency for such compounds to in-
duce TDI. To our surprise, 12 displayed a similar effect on 3A4 com-
pared to our previous leads,18 invalidating our first hypothesis. The
3,5-bis-morpholinoaniline being a common feature to all three
compounds, we suspect it could actually be the cause of the TDI ef-
fect. Effectively, it has been reported in the literature that oxidative
metabolism on a morpholine ring, producing a reactive species,
was responsible for a TDI effect of CYP 3A4.19 Although we did
not produce experimental evidence to support this hypothesis, this
suggests that a similar process might occur with our compounds.
Compound 12 also showed a modest reversible inhibition of
9. Lafleur, K.; Huang, D.; Zhou, T.; Caflisch, A.; Nevado, C. J. Med. Chem. 2009, 52,
6433.
10. Choi, Y.; Syeda, F.; Walker, J. R.; Finerty, P. J.; Cuerrier, D.; Wojciechowski, A.;
Liu, Q.; Dhe-Paganon, S.; Gray, N. S. Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett. 2009, 19, 4467.
11. See Supplementary data in: Karaman, M. W.; Herrgard, S.; Treiber, D. K.;
Gallant, P.; Atteridge, C. E.; Campbell, B. T.; Chan, K. W.; Ciceri, P.; Davis, M. I.;
Edeen, P. T.; Faraoni, R.; Floyd, M.; Hunt, J. P.; Lockhart, D. J.; Milanov, Z. V.;
Morrison, M. J.; Pallares, G.; Patel, H. K.; Pritchard, S.; Wodicka, L. M.; Zarrinkar,
P. P. Nat. Biotechnol. 2008, 26, 127.
12. The compounds described in reference 8 are also inhibitors of the VEGFR2 and
Tie2 receptor tyrosine kinases, both of which are linked to angiogenic
mechanisms.
13. The benzodioxole ring is known to produce mechanism based inhibition of
P450 enzymes, see: Fontana, E.; Dansette, P. M.; Poli, S. M. Curr. Drug Met. 2005,
6, 413.
14. PCT international applications WO/2008-104754 (for compd 3–14, 18-32),
WO/2008-132505 (for compd 33–34), and WO/2009-010794 (for compd 15–
17).
CYP3A4 when assessed in a fluorometric assay (7
3A4, >10 M against 1A2, 2C9, 2C19 and 2D6).
lM against
l
In conclusion, we have identified compound 12 as a potent and
selective inhibitor of the EphB4 and Src kinase families with good
pharmacokinetic properties in mouse, rat and dog. While 12 still
carries a risk of drug-drug interaction, this compound is potentially
useful to investigate the in vivo pharmacology of inhibitors of the
Eph receptor tyrosine kinases.
15. Human EphB4 (598–892; Y774E) was crystallized as described in Ref. 6b.
Detailed protein preparation, crystallization and freezing protocols are
included in the Supplementary data of Ref. 6b. Diffraction data for complex
of EphB4 with 32 were collected on a Rigaku FRe X-ray generator equipped
Table 4
Oral exposure of compound 12 in nude mouse.
with a Saturn 944 CCD detector, using a CuK
a wavelength of 1.54178 Å,
focused using Osmic Varimax HF mirrors at 100 K. Data were processed using
d⁄trek (Pflugrath, J.W. Acta Crystallogr., Sect. D 1999, 55, 1718) and reduced
using CCP4 software (Acta Crystallogr., Sect. D 1994, 50, 760). The structures
were solved by molecular replacement using coordinates of the EphB4 kinase
domain6b as a trial model using CCP4 software. Protein and inhibitor were
modeled into the electron density using, COOT (Emsley, P.; Cowtan, K. Acta
Dose (
l
mol/kg)
AUC (
lM h)
Cmax (lM)
10
100
200
1.6
63
155
1.9
15
17