Discovery of Next-Generation Tropomyosin Receptor Kinase Inhibitors for Combating Multiple Resistance Associated with Protein Mutation

J Med Chem. 2021 Oct 28;64(20):15503-15514. doi: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.1c01539. Epub 2021 Oct 20.

Abstract

Tropomyosin receptor kinase (TRK) inhibition is an effective therapeutic approach for treatment of a variety of cancers. Despite the use of first-generation TRK inhibitor (TRKI) larotrectinib (1) resulting in significant therapeutic response in patients, acquired resistance develops invariably. The emergence of secondary mutations occurring at the solvent-front, xDFG, and gatekeeper regions of TRK represents a common mechanism for acquired resistance. However, xDFG mutations remain insensitive to second-generation macrocyclic TRKIs selitrectinib (3) and repotrectinib (4) designed to overcome the resistance mediated by solvent-front and gatekeeper mutations. Here, we report the structure-based drug design and discovery of a next-generation TRKI. The structure-activity relationship studies culminated in the identification of a promising drug candidate 8 that showed excellent in vitro potency on a panel of TRK mutants, especially TRKAG667C in the xDFG motif, and improved in vivo efficacy than 1 and 3 in TRK wild-type and mutant fusion-driven tumor xenograft models, respectively.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Dose-Response Relationship, Drug
  • Drug Discovery*
  • Humans
  • Macrocyclic Compounds / chemical synthesis
  • Macrocyclic Compounds / chemistry
  • Macrocyclic Compounds / pharmacology*
  • Models, Molecular
  • Molecular Structure
  • Mutation
  • Protein Kinase Inhibitors / chemical synthesis
  • Protein Kinase Inhibitors / chemistry
  • Protein Kinase Inhibitors / pharmacology*
  • Pyrazoles / chemical synthesis
  • Pyrazoles / chemistry
  • Pyrazoles / pharmacology*
  • Pyrimidines / chemical synthesis
  • Pyrimidines / chemistry
  • Pyrimidines / pharmacology*
  • Receptor, trkA / antagonists & inhibitors*
  • Receptor, trkA / genetics
  • Receptor, trkA / metabolism
  • Structure-Activity Relationship

Substances

  • Macrocyclic Compounds
  • Protein Kinase Inhibitors
  • Pyrazoles
  • Pyrimidines
  • repotrectinib
  • Receptor, trkA
  • larotrectinib