ARTICLES
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Discussion
Bryostatin 1 shows great promise as a lead candidate in the search
for transformative therapies aimed at cancer and neurodegenerative
disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease. More recently, Bryostatin 1
was shown to induce the expression of HIV from latent viral reser-
voirs, an activity of potential importance for the eradication of HIV
infection. However, a sustainable, cost-effective supply of bryostatin
1 has not been established. More importantly, an agent that does not
exhibit the side effects of bryostatin is desirable. To address these
issues of both supply and therapeutic performance, we have
designed a series of bryostatin analogues (1–7) that can be syn-
thesized on scale and can be tuned for optimal clinical performance.
Analogues 1–7 were found to exhibit excellent affinities for PKC
with single-digit nanomolar or subnanomolar Ki values, and all
were more potent in this assay than the preclinical candidate pros-
tratin. Significantly, these simplified bryologs were shown to induce
the expression of latent HIV in vitro, with potencies similar to or
better than the natural product, bryostatin 1, and at doses up to
1,000-fold lower than that of prostratin.
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The study presented here demonstrates that bryostatin analogues
potently activate latent HIV reservoirs in vitro. Notably, none of the
compounds evaluated in this assay showed overt toxicity at concen-
trations up to 1 mM based on flow cytometry forward and side
scatter profiles. While in vivo studies of these bryostatin analogues
1–7 in an animal viral induction model are in progress, a related
analogue has been shown to be well tolerated and efficacious in a
mouse cancer model, with no toxicity observed at doses in excess
of that reported here (up to 1 mg kg21)44. Moreover, the convergent
nature of this strategy allows for additional tuning if needed to
improve therapeutic performance. Further evaluation of these com-
pounds in additional in vitro, ex vivo and in vivo latency induction
assays is in progress.
This study is the first demonstration that designed, simplified
analogues of bryostatin can serve as therapeutic leads for the eradi-
cation of HIV/AIDS. Given the problems associated with the supply
of bryostatin 1 and with its side effects, this study provides a reliable
synthetic source of agents that are comparable or superior to bryo-
statin in activity and can be tuned to accommodate clinical needs.
Viral reactivation with these agents, performed in combination
with HAART, would purge latent viral reservoirs while simul-
taneously depleting active virus. Coupling this approach with a tar-
geted therapeutic such as an immunotoxin to more rapidly kill any
resulting virus-expressing cell represents an additional therapeutic
opportunity52. This type of approach, now enabled by the avail-
ability of highly potent and tunable analogues, could be used to
clear all replication-competent HIV from infected individuals,
thereby providing a strategy for disease eradication.
Methods
Experimental details for the synthesis of all new compounds, including experimental
procedures, characterization and spectral data are provided in the Supplementary
Information. Assay protocols for the PKC competitive binding assay and HIV
latency activation assay are also provided in the Supplementary Information.
Received 27 February 2012; accepted 28 May 2012;
published online 15 July 2012
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31. Trost, B. M. & Dong, G. Total synthesis of bryostatin 16 using atom-economical
and chemoselective approaches. Nature 456, 485–488 (2008).
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