Phosphoinositide 3-kinases (PI3Ks) are involved in important cellular functions and represent desirable targets for drug discovery efforts, especially related to oncology; however, the four PI3K subtypes (α, β, γ, and δ) have highly similar binding sites, making the design of selective inhibitors challenging. A series of inhibitors with selectivity toward the β subtype over δ resulted in compound 3(S), which has entered a phase I/Ib clinical trial for patients with advanced PTEN-deficient cancer. Interestingly, X-ray crystallography revealed that the modifications making inhibitor 3(S) and related compounds selective toward the β-isoform do not interact directly with either PI3Kβ or PI3Kδ, thereby confounding rationalization of the SAR. Here, we apply explicit solvent molecular dynamics and solvent thermodynamic analysis using WaterMap in an effort to understand the unusual affinity and selectivity trends. We find that differences in solvent energetics and water networks, which are modulated upon binding of different ligands, explain the experimental affinity and selectivity trends. This study highlights the critical role of water molecules in molecular recognition and the importance of considering water networks in drug discovery efforts to rationalize and improve selectivity.
As the replacement of a hydrogen atom by a fluorine atom in a compound can have an important impact on its biological properties, the development of methods allowing the introduction of a fluorine atom is of great importance. The scope and limitations of the ring expansion of cyclic 2-hydroxymethyl amines induced by diethylaminosulfur trifluoride (DAST) to produce cyclic β-fluoro amines was studied as well as the enantioselectivity of the process.
Pyrazinamide is an active pharmaceutical compound for the treatment of tuberculosis. It possesses at least four crystalline polymorphs. Polymorphism may cause solubility problems as the case of ritonavir has clearly demonstrated; however, polymorphs also provide opportunities to improve pharmaceutical formulations, in particular if the stable form is not very soluble. The four polymorphs of pyrazinamide constitute a rich system to investigate the usefulness of metastable forms and their stabilization. However, despite the existence of a number of papers on the polymorphism of pyrazinamide, well-defined equilibrium conditions between the polymorphs appear to be lacking. This paper focusses on the phase behavior of the so-called a and g polymorphs of pyrazinamide, its liquid phase and vapor phase. The melting points and enthalpies of both solid phases have been determined. The equilibrium temperature between a and g was experimentally found at 392(1) K. Moreover, vapor pressures and solubilities of both phases have been determined, clearly indicating that form a is the more stable form at room temperature. High-pressure thermal analysis and the topological pressure-temperature phase diagram demonstrate that the g form is stabilized by pressure and becomes stable at room temperature under a pressure of 260 MPa. File list (2) download file view on ChemRxiv pyrazinamidePhaseBehavior-alpha-gamma-OA.pdf (1.93 MiB) download file view on ChemRxiv Supplementary Materials-OA.pdf (344.86 KiB)
The phase behaviour of drug molecules is important for the control over the desired polymorph in drug formulations, whether it is to ensure better stability or better solubility. In the...
Understanding the phase behavior of active pharmaceutical ingredients is important for formulations of dosage forms and regulatory reasons. Nimesulide is an anti-inflammatory drug that is known to exhibit dimorphism. It is shown in the paper that form II is intrinsically monotropic in relation to form I. This result has been obtained by experimental means, involving high-pressure measurements. In addition, it has been shown that with very limited means and statistical melting data, the same conclusion can be obtained, demonstrating that in first instance topological high-pressure phase diagrams can be obtained without measuring any high-pressure data.
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