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Indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase is a heme-containing enzyme implicated in the down regulation of the anti-tumor immune response, and considered a promising anti-cancer drug target. Several pharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer, Merck, and Bristol-Myers Squibb, are known to be in pursuit of IDO inhibitors, and Incyte recently reported good results in the phase II clinical trial of the IDO inhibitor Epacadostat. In previous work, we developed a series of IDO inhibitors based on a sulfonylhydrazide core structure, and explored how they could serve as potent IDO inhibitors with good drug profiles. Herein, we disclose the development of the 4-bromophenylhydrazinyl benzenesulfonylphenylurea 5k, a potent IDO inhibitor which demonstrated 25% tumor growth inhibition in a murine CT26 syngeneic model on day 18 with 100 mg/kg oral administration twice daily, and a 30% reduction in tumor weight. Pharmacodynamic testing of 5k found it to cause a 25% and 21% reduction in kyn/trp ratio at the plasma and tumor, respectively. In the CT26 tumor model, 5k was found to slightly increase the percentage of CD3+ T cells and lymphocyte responsiveness, indicating that 5k may have potential in modulating anti-tumor immunity. These data suggest 5k to be worthy of further investigation in the development of anti-tumor drugs.

The μ-opioid receptor (MOR) is the major opioid receptor targeted by most analgesics in clinical use. However, the use of all known MOR agonists is associated with severe adverse effects. We reported that the 1-phenyl-3,6,6-trimethyl-1,5,6,7-tetrahydro-4H-indazol-4-ones are novel opioid receptor agonists. Subsequent structural modification resulted in the potent MOR/KOR (κ-opioid receptor) agonists 19, 20, and 21. Testing the analgesic effect of these in WT B6 mice (tail-flick test) gave ED50 values of 8.4, 10.9, and 26.6 mg/kg, respectively. The 1-phenyl-3,6,6-trimethyl-1,5,6,7-tetrahydro-4H-indazol-4-one core could be addressed in 1 or 2 synthetic steps with moderate to high percent of yield. In the adenylyl cyclase assay, compound 19 displayed a MOR/KOR agonist profile, with IC50 values of 0.73 and 0.41 μM, respectively. Current results suggest that compound 19 is a promising lead to go further development and in vitro/in vivo adverse effects studies.

The authors investigated the pharmacology and signaling pathways of the opioid receptors modulated by compound 1, 1-(2,4-dibromophenyl)-3,6,6-trimethyl-1,5,6,7-tetrahydro-4H-indazol-4-one.In vitro studies of compound 1 were assessed by using a radioligand-binding assay (n = 3), a cyclic adenosine monophosphate assay (n = 3), a β-arrestin assay (n = 3), an internalization assay (n = 3), and an immunohistochemistry (n = 8). In vivo studies of compound 1 were characterized using a tail-flick test (n = 5 to 6), tail-clip test (n = 7), von Frey hair test (n = 5), and charcoal meal test (n = 5).Compound 1 elicited robust effects in μ-opioid (mean ± SD; binding affinity: 15 ± 2 nM; cyclic adenosine monophosphate assay: 24 ± 6 nM), δ-opioid (82 ± 7 nM; 1.9 ± 0.1 μM), and κ-opioid (76 ± 9 nM; 1.4 ± 0.5 μM) receptor-expressing cells. Compound 1 acts as a full agonist of β-arrestin-2 recruitment in μ-opioid (1.1 ± 0.3 μM) and δ-opioid (9.7 ± 1.9 μM) receptor-expressing cells. Compound 1 caused less gastrointestinal dysfunction (charcoal meal test: morphine: 82 ± 5%; compound 1: 42 ± 5%) as well as better antinociception in mechanical pain hypersensitivity (tail-clip test: morphine: 10 ± 3 s; compound 1: 19 ± 1 s) and in cancer-induced pain (von Frey hair test: morphine: 0.1 ± 0.1 g; compound 1: 0.3 ± 0.1 g) than morphine at equi-antinociceptive doses.Compound 1 produced antinociception with less gastrointestinal dysfunction than morphine.

Tryptophan metabolism has been recognized as an important mechanism in immune tolerance. Indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase plays a key role in local tryptophan metabolism via the kynurenine pathway and has emerged as a therapeutic target for cancer immunotherapy. Our prior study identified phenyl benzenesulfonyl hydrazide 2 as a potent in vitro (though not in vivo) inhibitor of indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase. Further lead optimization to improve in vitro potencies and pharmacokinetic profiles resulted in N′-(4-bromophenyl)-2-oxo-2,3-dihydro-1H-indole-5-sulfonyl hydrazide 40, which demonstrated 59% oral bioavailability and 73% of tumor growth delay without apparent body weight loss in the murine CT26 syngeneic model, after oral administration of 400 mg/kg. Accordingly, 40, is proposed as a potential drug lead worthy of advanced preclinical evaluation.

Indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase 1 (IDO1), promoting immune escape of tumors, is a therapeutic target for the cancer immunotherapy. A number of IDO1 inhibitors have been identified, but only limited structural biology studies of IDO1 inhibitors are available to provide insights on the binding mechanism of IDO1. In this study, we present the structure of IDO1 in complex with 24, a NLG919 analogue with potent activity. The complex structure revealed the imidazole nitrogen atom of 24 to coordinate with the heme iron, and the imidazoleisoindole core situated in pocket A with the 1-cyclohexylethanol moiety extended to pocket B to interact with the surrounding residues. Most interestingly, 24 formed an extensive hydrogen bond network with IDO1, which is a distinct feature of IDO1/24 complex structure and is not observed in the other IDO1 complex structures. Further structure-activity relationship, UV spectra, and structural biology studies of several analogues of 24 demonstrated that extensive hydrophobic interactions and the unique hydrogen bonding network contribute to the great potency of imidazoleisoindole derivatives. These results are expected to facilitate the structure-based drug design of new IDO inhibitors.

A library of 1,4-benzodiazepine-2,5-dione dicarboxylate derivatives containing aryl substituents at N(1)- and N(4)-positions to mimic the amino acid residues of Try-13, Phe-14, and Asp-18 in endothelin-1 is established by using the starting materials of alpha-amino esters, hydroxybenzaldehydes, nitrobenzoyl chlorides, and benzyl bromides in a polyethylene resin-bound liquid-phase synthesis. All of the six synthetic steps are conducted under mild conditions to give the desired products with reasonable yields and purity. The poly(ethylene glycol) support plays as a part of ester linkage that is released at the final step.

The expedient synthesis of various 1,4-benzodiazepine-2,5-dione compounds, particularly those having substituents at the C3-, N1- and N4-positions is achieved. The important features in these synthetic strategies include: (i) using the coupling reaction of isatoic anhydride with alpha-amino ester for direct construction of the core structure of 1,4-benzodiazepine-2,5-dione; (ii) using potassium carbonate as the base of choice for selective alkylation at the N1-site, while using lithiated 2-ethylacetanilide as the required base to furnish the N4-alkylation; and (iii) using 2-nitrobenzoyl chloride as a synthetic equivalent of anthranilic acid to facilitate the polyethylene resin-bound liquid-phase combinatorial synthesis. The prepared 1,4-benzodiazepine-2,5-dione compounds are evaluated for endothelin receptor antagonism by a functional assay that measures the inhibitory activity against the change of intramolecular calcium ion concentration induced by endothelin-1. The preliminary results indicate that 1,4-benzodiazepine-2,5-diones bearing two flanked aryl substituents at the N1- and N4-sites show better inhibitory activity than the corresponding unalkylated and N-monoalkylated compounds. A promising candidate, 1-benzyl-7-chloro-3-isopropyl-4-(3-methoxybenzyl)-1,4-benzodiazepine-2,5-dione (17b), exhibits an IC50 value in low nM range.