With the widespread use of O-alkoxyresorufin dealkylation assays since the 1990’s, thousands of inhibitors of cytochrome P450 family 1 enzymes (P450s 1A1, 1A2, and 1B1) have been identified and studied. Generally, planar polycyclic molecules such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, stilbenoids, and flavonoids are considered to potentially be effective inhibitors of these enzymes. However, the details of structure-activity relationships and selectivity of these inhibitors are still ambiguous. In this review, we thoroughly discuss the selectivity of many representative P450 family 1 inhibitors reported in the past 20 years through a meta-analysis.

Abstract:The human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) is a member of the erbB class of tyrosine kinase receptors. These proteins are normally expressed at the surface of healthy cells and play critical roles in the signal transduction cascade in a myriad of biochemical pathways responsible for cell growth and differentiation. However, it is widely known that amplification and subsequent overexpression of the HER2 encoding oncogene results in unregulated cell proliferation in an aggressive form of breast cancer known as HER2-positive breast cancer. Existing therapies such as trastuzumab (Herceptin ® ) and lapatinib (Tyverb/Tykerb ® ), a monoclonal antibody inhibitor and a dual EGFR/HER2 kinase inhibitor, respectively, are currently used in the treatment of HER2-positive cancers, although issues with high recurrence and acquired resistance still remain. Small molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitors provide attractive therapeutic targets, as they are able to block cell signaling associated with many of the proposed mechanisms for HER2 resistance. In this regard we aim to present a review on the available HER2 tyrosine kinase inhibitors, as well as those currently in development. The use of tyrosine kinase inhibitors as sequential or combinatorial therapeutic strategies with other HER family inhibitors is also discussed.

Research by Klein and co-workers suggests that the inhibition of GSK-3beta by small molecules may offer an important strategy in the treatment of a number of central nervous system (CNS) disorders including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and bipolar disorders. Based on results from kinase-screening assays that identified a staurosporine analogue as a modest inhibitor of GSK-3beta, a series of 3-indolyl-4-indazolylmaleimides was prepared for study in both enzymatic and cell-based assays. Most strikingly, whereas we identified ligands having poor to high potency for GSK-3beta inhibition, only ligands with a Ki value of less than 8 nM, namely maleimides 18 and 22, were found to inhibit Tau phosphorylation at a GSK-3beta-specific site (Ser 396/404). Accordingly, maleimides 18 and 22 may protect neuronal cells against cell death by decreasing the level of alpha-Syn protein expression. We conclude that the GSK-3beta inhibitors described herein offer promise in defending cells against MPP+-induced neurotoxicity and that such compounds will be valuable to explore in animal models of Parkinson's disease as well as in other Tau-related neurodegenerative disease states.

Liver X receptors (LXRs) have been increasingly recognized as a potential therapeutic target to treat pathological conditions ranging from vascular and metabolic diseases, neurological degeneration, to cancers that are driven by lipid metabolism. Amidst intensifying efforts to discover ligands that act through LXRs to achieve the sought-after pharmacological outcomes, several lead compounds are already being tested in clinical trials for a variety of disease interventions. While more potent and selective LXR ligands continue to emerge from screening of small molecule libraries, rational design, and empirical medicinal chemistry approaches, challenges remain in minimizing undesirable effects of LXR activation on lipid metabolism. This review provides a summary of known endogenous, naturally occurring, and synthetic ligands. The review also offers considerations from a molecular modeling perspective with which to design more specific LXRβ ligands based on the interaction energies of ligands and the important amino acid residues in the LXRβ ligand binding domain.

Selective inhibition of P450 enzymes is the key to block the conversion of environmental procarcinogens to their carcinogenic metabolites in both animals and humans. To discover highly potent and selective inhibitors of P450s 1A1, 1A2, and 1B1, as well as to investigate active site cavities of these enzymes, 14 novel flavone derivatives were prepared as chemical probes. Fluorimetric enzyme inhibition assays were used to determine the inhibitory activities of these probes towards P450s 1A1, 1A2, 1B1, 2A6, and 2B1. A highly selective P450 1B1 inhibitor, 5-hydroxy-4′-propargyloxyflavone (5H4′FPE) was discovered. Some tested compounds also showed selectivity between P450s 1A1 and 1A2. Alpha-naphthoflavone-like and 5-hydroxyflavone derivatives preferentially inhibited P450 1A2, while beta-naphthoflavone-like flavone derivatives showed selective inhibition of P450 1A1. On the basis of structural analysis, the active site cavity models of P450 enzymes 1A1 and 1A2 were generated, demonstrating a planar long strip cavity and a planar triangular cavity, respectively.

A BSTRACTMembers of the cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) family play key roles in various cellular processes. There are 11 members of the CDK family known till now. CDKs are activated by forming noncovalent complexes with cyclins such as A-, B-, C-, D-(D1, D2, and D3), and E-type cyclins. Each isozyme of this family is responsible for particular aspects (cell signaling, transcription, etc) of the cell cycle, and some of the CDK isozymes are specifi c to certain kinds of tissues. Aberrant expression and overexpression of these kinases are evidenced in many disease conditions. Inhibition of isozymes of CDKs specifi cally can yield benefi ciary treatment modalities with minimum side effects. More than 80 3-dimensional structures of CDK2, CDK5, and CDK6 complexed with inhibitors have been published. This review provides an understanding of the structural aspects of CDK isozymes and binding modes of various known CDK inhibitors so that these kinases can be better targeted for drug discovery and design. The amino acid residues that constitute the cyclin binding region, the substrate binding region, and the area around the adenosine triphosphate (ATP) binding site have been compared for CDK isozymes. Those amino acids at the ATP binding site that could be used to improve the potency and subtype specifi city have been described.

Daidzein (1) is a natural estrogenic isoflavone. We report here that 1 can be transformed into antiestrogenic ligands by simple alkyl substitutions of the 7-hydroxyl hydrogen. To test the effect of such structural modifications on the hormonal activities of the resulting compounds, a series of daidzein analogues have been designed and synthesized. When MCF-7 cells were treated with the analogues, those resulting from hydrogen substitution by isopropyl (3d), isobutyl (3f), cyclopentyl (3g), and pyrano-(2), inhibited cell proliferation, estrogen-induced transcriptional activity, and estrogen receptor (ER) regulated progesterone receptor (PgR) gene expression. However, methyl (3a) and ethyl (3b) substitutions of the hydroxyl proton only led to moderate reduction of the estrogenic activities. These results demonstrated the structural requirements for the transformation of daidzein from an ER agonist to an antagonist. The most effective analogue, 2 was found to reduce in vivo estrogen stimulated MCF-7 cell tumorigenesis using a xenograft mouse model.

In silico docking studies and quantitative structure–activity relationship analysis of a number of in-house cytochrome P450 inhibitors have revealed important structural characteristics that are required for a molecule to function as a good inhibitor of P450 enzymes 1A1, 1A2, 2B1, and/or 2A6. These insights were incorporated into the design of pharmacophores used for a 2D search of the Chinese medicine database. Emodin, a natural anthraquinone isolated from Rheum emodi and known to be metabolized by cytochrome P450 enzymes, was one of the hits and was used as the lead compound. Emodin was found to inhibit P450s 1A1, 1A2, and 2B1 with IC50 values of 12.25, 3.73, and 14.89 μM, respectively. On the basis of the emodin molecular structure, further similarity searches of the PubChem and ZINC chemical databases were conducted resulting in the identification of 12 emodin analogues for testing against P450s 1A1-, 1A2-, 2B1-, and 2A6-dependent activities. 1-Amino-4-chloro-2-methylan-thracene-9,10-dione (compound 1) showed the best inhibition potency for P450 1A1 with an IC50 value of 0.40 μM. 1-Amino-4-chloro-2-methylanthracene-9,10-dione (compound 1) and 1-amino-4-hydroxyanthracene-9,10-dione (compound 2) both inhibited P450 1A2 with the same IC50 value of 0.53 μM. In addition, compound 1 acted as a mechanism-based inhibitor of cytochrome P450s 1A1 and 1A2 with KI and Kinactivation values of 5.38 μM and 1.57 min−1 for P450 1A1 and 0.50 μM and 0.08 min−1 for P450 1A2. 2,6-Di-tert-butyl-5-hydroxynaphthalene-1,4-dione (compound 8) directly inhibited P450 2B1 with good selectivity and inhibition potency (IC50 = 5.66 μM). Docking studies using the 3D structures of the enzymes were carried out on all of the compounds. The binding modes of these compounds revealed the structural characteristics responsible for their potency and selectivity. Compound 1, which is structurally similar to compound 2 in the presence of an amino group at position 1, showed a difference in the mechanism of inhibition toward P450s 1A1 and 1A2. The mechanism-based inhibition seen for compound 1 may be attributed to the presence of the methyl group at the 2-position, in close proximity to the amino group. Compound 2, which is otherwise similar, lacks that methyl moiety and did not show mechanism-based inhibition.