ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters
Letter
aminoglycosides with improved PTC readthrough activity, we
decided to apply our structural modification onto the core of
NB124 (ELX-02), an aminoglycoside derivative in phase II
clinical trials for treatment of cystic fibrosis and nephropathic
readthrough activity. Compounds 9a and 9b have three basic
amine moieties and would possess an overall charge of +3 at
physiological pH. In contrast, NB124 and G418 (2) contain
four basic moieties and a +4 overall charge. If the cationic
nature of the molecule as a whole was important for either
cellular uptake or readthrough activity, then an analogue, such
as compound 9c, may shed some light on the structural drivers
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cystinosis.
This led to the design of compound 9a, where the 2′-amino
Figure 5. First-generation modified NB124 analogues with 2′-
hydroxyl modifications.
Figure 6. Second-generation modified NB124 analogues with 2′-
hydroxyl moieties and 6′/7′ modifications.
addition to compound (R)-9a, we were able to prepare the
diastereomeric 6′-alcohol, (S)-9b (Figure 5). The impact of
the stereoisomer at the 6′-position on PTC readthrough
activity has not previously been explored, however others have
noted the conformation of the 6′-alcohol impacts antibacterial
The second approach relied on the observation initially
reported by Simonson and colleagues that the introduction of a
hydroxylmethyl group at the ring I 6′,7′-positions in
paromamine did not affect binding to the bacterial ribosome
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activity.
To evaluate the PTC readthrough activity of the compounds
we selected the lung carcinoma DMS-114 cell line with
homozygous nonsense mutation R213X in the TP53 gene.
This mutation was previously shown to be very responsive to
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relative to the alcohol. Subsequent incorporation of the 7′-
hydroxyl group on NB124 by Baasov and co-workers, however,
suggested improved activity via interactions with RNA bases in
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PTC readthrough treatments. DMS-114 cells were exposed
to the compounds at various concentrations over the course of
the eukaryotic ribosome structure (NB157).
This led to the design of compound 9d, which incorporated
the additional primary alcohol at the 7′-position, while also
maintaining the reduced cationic nature of compound 9a
(Figure 6). We were interested in evaluating whether addition
of a 7′-hydroxyl group would be sufficient to improve the
readthrough activity to levels similar to that of G418 (2) or
NB124.
As such we sought to synthesize both 9c and 9d to better
understand the structural−activity relationship of charge, ring I
substituents, and PTC readthrough activity.
Similarly to triamine analogue 9b, the tetraamine analogue
9c did not display any PTC readthrough activity at
concentrations up to 500 μg/mL, suggesting that the overall
cationic charge was not essential for readthrough. Most
promisingly, however, was the significant concentration
dependent increase in the PTC readthrough activity of the
triamine analogue 9d. This compound induced p53 PTC
readthrough starting at 31 μg/mL and at 125 and 250 μg/mL
readthrough reached levels similar to those elicited by 15 and
31 μg/mL NB124, respectively (Figure 7b). Consistent with
our goal, 9d did not show cell toxicity at concentrations up to
500 μg/mL.
To gain a better understanding of the safety of these novel
compounds, we measured their effect on human fibroblasts
viability and compared them to that of G418 and NB124
(Figure 8). Both novel compounds 9a and 9d did not
significantly inhibit cell viability at concentrations up to 0.5
mg/mL, however compound 9d caused a 15% reduction in cell
viability at 1 mg/mL. Both G418 and NB124 caused
significant concentration dependent reduction in cell viability
with 1 mg/mL eliciting 72% and 50% reduction, respectively
(Figure 8).
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8 hours. Expression of the full-length p53, the PTC
readthrough product, was determined. As anticipated, both
G418 and NB124 induced concentration dependent increase
in PTC readthrough (Figure 7a). NB124 was less active than
G418 at lower concentrations but at 62 μg/mL they both
elicited similar PTC readthrough. NB124 was not toxic to
DMS-114 cells at concentrations up to 62 μg/mL but it
showed significant toxicity at 125 μg/mL and higher
concentrations. Replacement of the 2′-amine moiety with the
alcohol led to a significant reduction in the PTC readthrough
activity of compounds 9a and 9b compared to parent molecule
NB124 (Figure 7a). We observed a concentration dependent
increase in the production of full-length p53 with 9a starting at
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25 μg/mL. At 500 μg/mL, this compound elicited PTC
readthrough that reached 18% of the maximal PTC read-
through activity of the 62 μg/mL nontoxic dose of NB124
(
Figure 7a). Compound 9b did not show any PTC
readthrough activity at concentrations up to 500 μg/mL
indicating the importance of the stereoisomer at the 6′-
position for PTC readthrough activity (Figure 7a). In addition
to decreased PTC readthrough activity, we also observed a
marked reduction in cytotoxicity of 9a and 9b at concen-
trations up to 500 μg/mL compared to G418 or NB124.
Despite the reduction in activity, a comparable toxicity versus
efficacy value for compound 9a, encouraged us to further
explore the structure−activity relationship. Two approaches
were considered to further understand and improve the
structural aspects driving the PTC readthrough activity of
these aminoglycoside derivatives.
The first was to understand whether the overall cationic
charge of the molecule was important for driving cellular
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ACS Med. Chem. Lett. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX