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valine and the optimized C-terminal capping groups while varying
O
the substituents at P3 (Fig. 2). Modifications were also made to the
P1 substituents in some of the optimized compounds. The general
synthesis of the tripeptide analogs 8 is illustrated in Scheme 1.
Condensation of Boc-amino acid derivative 3 with amino acid
derivative 4, followed by acidic cleavage of the N-terminal Boc pro-
tecting group afforded dipeptide 5. Condensation of dipeptide 5
with the Boc-protected derivative 6 followed by hydrogenolysis
of the benzyl ester afforded the tripeptide acid 7. Finally, conden-
sation of 7 with the appropriate amine followed by removal of the
Boc group provided the target IAP inhibitors 8.13
All compounds synthesized were evaluated for their ability to
bind the BIR2 or BIR3 domains of XIAP by employing fluores-
cence-polarization (FP) competition assays.14 The results are ex-
pressed as competitive inhibition constants (Ki), derived from the
corresponding IC50 values by application of a mathematical equa-
tion developed by Wang and co-workers.15
We first synthesized and tested a series of analogs where
P1 = NMeAla, P2 = Val and R4 = 1,2,3,4-tetrahydronaphthyl, while
varying the P3 residue. The results are shown in Table 1. The spe-
cific amino acid residues that were incorporated into the tripeptide
scaffold were selected to maximize diversity and to probe the size
of the binding pocket in the P3 region of the protein. Thus, several
of the amino acids chosen for P3 contained long chain substituents,
some of which were hydrophilic and others with hydrophobic
characteristics. Compared with the lead structure 2c (P3 = Pro)
none of the new analogs had improved affinity for the BIR3 domain
of XIAP. For example, replacing Pro with Ala at P3 as in 8a led to a
reduction in potency of two-fold for BIR2 and 14-fold for BIR3 com-
pared with 2c. However, it is noteworthy that some analogs with
long chain residues at P3 (e.g., 8b, 8d, and 8g) bound with submi-
cromolar affinity to the BIR3 domain, including the ArgNO2 analog
H
N
O
N
H
N
Me
N
H
N
R4
Me
N
H
O
Me
N
H
O
Me
O
NH
O
2a R4 = NHPh
2b R4 = 1-naphthyl
2c R4 = tetrahydronaphthyl
S
1 GDC-0152
N
N
Figure 1. Tripeptide IAP antagonists.
for the BIR2 domain of XIAP. However, somewhat surprisingly
there have been few reports on the design and synthesis of com-
pounds that effect inhibition by binding to the BIR2 domain of
XIAP.11
We recently described the systematic ligand-based rational de-
sign and synthesis of new monovalent IAP antagonists that bind
preferentially to the BIR2 domain of XIAP.12 Using the AVPI motif
found at the N-terminus of Smac as an initial template, we devel-
oped the tripeptide model shown in Figure 2. We then synthesized
a series of analogs and determined their binding affinity for the
BIR2 or BIR3 domains of XIAP. In this initial study, we held con-
stant the N-methyl alanine moiety at the P1 position and the pro-
line residue at P3, while investigating the effects of varying the P2
position (R2) and the C-terminal substituent (R4). This led to the
discovery of compounds such as 2a (R4 = NHPh) and 2b (R4 = 1-
naphthyl) with preferential affinity for XIAP BIR2 versus BIR3 and
promising cell killing activity. We also confirmed that a tetrahy-
dronaphthyl C-terminal capping group (R4) confers selectivity for
BIR3 and potent cell killing activity, as observed for peptidomimet-
ic 2c. Herein we report our further investigation of the SAR around
this series of tripeptides leading to the discovery of novel com-
pounds with unique selectivity for the BIR2 domain of XIAP.
The present study is a continuation of work performed within
the Molecular Libraries Probe Production Centers Network
ing novel XIAP BIR2-selective probes. In this phase of the study
we synthesized analogs that retained the P2 substituent (R2) as
8b, with a Ki value of 0.29
BIR3 versus BIR2. Interestingly, the BIR3 affinity for 8b (0.29
comparable with the clinical compound 1 (GDC-0152) (0.26
l
M at XIAP BIR3 and 12:1 selectivity for
M) is
M).
l
l
These results suggest that the BIR3 domain of XIAP tolerates rela-
tively bulky substituents in the P3 region.
We next investigated a set of analogs that retained P1 = NMe-
Ala, P2 = Val and introduced phenylhydrazine into the R4 position.
The results of varying the P3 residue among the analogs are shown
in Table 2. For compound 2a, where P3 = Pro, we had previously
found that a phenylhydrazine C-terminal capping group (R4) con-
fers selectivity for BIR2 of XIAP.12 In the new series, this trend
proved to hold true regardless of the P3 residue. In fact, the BIR2
versus BIR3 selectivity ratio of potencies for all the new com-
pounds was equal to or better than the 3:1 ratio exhibited by the
potent XIAP antagonist 2a. Furthermore, the BIR3 potency of the
P1
P2
P3
H
N
O
R2
R3
N
R
N
H
R4
O
R1
N
O
H
N-Terminus
C-Terminus
Figure 2. Tripeptide binding model.
R2
R2
O
O
H
N
a, b
H2N
BOC
OH
+
N
H
OBn
H2N
OBn
R3
O
R3
O
3
4
5
BOC O
N
a, c
R
OH
R1
6
R2
O
BOC O
N
R2
O
R4NH2
a, b
O
H
H
H
R4
N
N
R
N
R
N
H
OH
N
H
N
H
R1
R3
O
R1
R3
O
8
7
Scheme 1. General synthetic sequence for the synthesis of small molecule IAP antagonists. Reagents and conditions: (a) EDC, HOBt, N-methylmorpholine, DMF; (b) TFA,
CH2Cl2; (c) H2, Pd/C, MeOH.