984
M. Jin et al. / Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett. 23 (2013) 979–984
clearance with no significant metabolites detected in plasma. Sub-
sequently, a systematic SAR exploration around the SoD (data not
shown) revealed that the methyl cyclobutanol moiety shown in
compound 34 was a preferred pharmacophoric element for this re-
gion of the molecule.
demonstrated good in vivo PK properties, which makes it a valu-
able compound to probe the in vivo biology of ACK1.
Acknowledgments
After extensive SAR exploration on key pharmacophoric ele-
ments as described above, preferred SoD and NoD groups were
merged, with a representative list of compounds highlighted in
Table 6. Compounds with carbonyl and methylene NoD linkers
(35–38) gave both good biochemical and cellular mechanistic
potencies14 but less optimal DMPK properties as indicated by rela-
tively high extraction ratios (low microsomal stability) in both
mouse and human liver microsomes. Compound 39, with a gem-
difluoromethylene linker, showed improved microsomal stability,
however, it suffered a moderate potency loss. Compound 40 with
the tertiary alcohol linker motif and compounds 41–42 with an
oxygen linker demonstrated both good potency and good micro-
somal stability. Key compounds were progressed to mouse PK
studies and the results are summarized in Table 7. All three com-
pounds tested had good oral exposures and were highly bioavail-
able with moderate rates of clearance. It should be noted that in
these studies, compound 40 was evaluated as a racemic mixture.
The enantiomers were later separated by chiral supercritical fluid
chromatography (SFC) and subjected to mouse PK studies. Both
enantiomers showed similar PK profiles to 40, with no racemiza-
tion detected in vivo by chiral HPLC analysis of the plasma
samples.
The authors gratefully acknowledge Dr. Yingjie Li and Ms. Vio-
rica M. Lazarescu for analytical support; Mr. Paul Maresca, Mr. Pete
Meyn and the Leads Discovery Group for conducting in vitro AD-
MET studies; The authors also gratefully acknowledge Proteros
Biostructures GmbH for collaboration on ACK1 co-crystallization
effort.
References and notes
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To understand the kinase selectivity profile of this series, com-
pound 42, as a representative analog from this series, was profiled
against 216 purified protein kinases representing the tyrosine and
serine/threonine kinase families using an in-house Caliper EZ
Reader mobility shift assay. Assays were conducted with the con-
centration of ATP at Km for each individual kinase with compound
42 at a concentration of 1.0 lM. Among 216 kinase screened, com-
pound 42 showed ꢀ100% inhibition of ACK1 and >80% inhibition of
12 other kinases. Of the 12 off-target kinases, none were consid-
ered major cell growth drivers such as receptor tyrosine kinases
or cell-cycle regulating kinases.15 The selectivity was further con-
firmed by KINOMscan profiling against an even larger panel of
451 kinases, where compound 42 showed a selectivity score of
S(10) = 0.08, which represents a relatively high degree of selectiv-
ity.16 Compound 42 possesses favorable drug-like properties as
indicated by its physicochemical and ADMET properties, as sum-
marized in Table 8. A convergent synthesis of compound 42 is illus-
trated in Scheme 1. Phenol 43 was converted to di-phenyl ether 44
though a Cu(II) mediated Chan–Lam coupling,17 the subsequent
palladium catalyzed borylation of 44 afforded the desired boronate
45. The key imidazo[1,5-a]pyrazine intermediate 46 was treated
with methyl Grignard reagent MeMgCl followed by an ammonoly-
sis to give compound 48, which then underwent a Suzuki coupling
with boronate 45 to provide compound 42.10
9. Mahajan, K.; Challa, S.; Coppola, D.; Lawrence, H.; Luo, Y.; Gevariya, H.; Zhu, W.;
Chen, Y.; Lawrence, N.; Mahajan, N. P. Prostate 2010, 70, 1274.
10. Crew, A. P.; Jin, M.; Kadalbajoo, M.; Kleinberg, A.; Mulvihill, M. J.; Wang, J. US
20090286768. Detailed biochemical assay and cellular mechanistic assay
protocols, as well as synthesis of key intermediates and final compounds are
described therein.
11. Laurence, C.; Brameld, K. A.; Graton, J.; Le Questel, J. Y.; Renault, E. J. Med. Chem.
2009, 52, 4073.
12. The calculations were performed with Jaguar program version 6.5 licensed
from Schrodinger, Inc., Poland, OR. The B3LYP functional and 6-31G⁄⁄ basis set
were used. To obtain the free state conformation of
a compound, the
geometrical optimizations with multiple starting points were performed.
13. Bissantz, C.; Kuhn, B.; Stahl, M. J. Med. Chem. 2010, 53, 5061.
14. The ACK1 biochemical potencies and cellular mechanistic potencies for this
series of compounds are well correlated (R2 = 0.76).
In summary, a series of imidazo[1,5-a]pyrazine derived ACK1
inhibitors was identified through a combination of structure-based
drug design and empirical medicinal chemistry efforts. Efforts
originated from virtual screening hit 3, where SAR exploration
and DMPK optimizations eventually led to compound 42, a
potent and selective ACK1 inhibitor with favorable in vitro physi-
cochemical and ADMET properties. Furthermore, compound 42
15. Compound 42 showed >80% inhibition to following kinases (other than ACK1)
when screened at 1.0
LYNB, SRC, SRMS, TEC, TXK, YES.
16. Selectivity score is quantitative measure of compound selectivity. It is
lM against 216 kinases: BLK, FGR, FRK, FYN, HCK, LCK,
a
calculated as such: selectivity score = (number of hits)/(number of assays).
S(10) is calculated using 10% control as a potency threshold: S(10) = (number of
kinases with % control <10)/(number of kinases tested). Further information
17. Evans, D. A.; Katz, J. L.; West, T. R. Tetrahedron Lett. 1998, 39, 2937.