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The molecular chaperone HSP90 has been shown to facilitate cancer cell survival by stabilizing key proteins responsible for a malignant phenotype. We report here the results of parallel fragment-based drug design approaches in the design of novel HSP90 inhibitors. Initial aminopyrimidine leads were elaborated using high-throughput organic synthesis to yield nanomolar inhibitors of the enzyme. Second site leads were also identified which bound to HSP90 in two distinct conformations, an ‘open’ and ‘closed’ form. Intriguingly, linked fragment approaches targeting both of these conformations were successful in producing novel, micromolar inhibitors. Overall, this study shows that, with only a few fragment hits, multiple lead series can be generated for HSP90 due to the inherent flexibility of the active site. Thus, ample opportunities exist to use these lead series in the development of clinically useful HSP90 inhibitors for the treatment of cancers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Overexpression of prosurvival proteins such as Bcl-2 and Bcl-X Lhas been correlated with tumorigenesis and resistance to chemotherapy, and thus, the development of antagonists of these proteins may provide a novel means for the treatment of cancer. We recently described the discovery of 1(ABT-737), which binds Bcl-2, Bcl-X L, and Bcl-w with high affinity, shows robust antitumor activity in murine tumor xenograft models, but is not orally bioavailable. Herein, we report that targeted modifications at three key positions of 1resulted in a 20-fold improvement in the pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic relationship (PK/PD) between oral exposure (AUC) and in vitro efficacy in human tumor cell lines (EC 50). The resulting compound, 2(ABT-263), is orally efficacious in an established xenograft model of human small cell lung cancer, inducing complete tumor regressions in all animals. Compound 2is currently in multiple phase 1 clinical trials in patients with small cell lung cancer and hematological malignancies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]