New pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidines were synthesized and found to inhibit Src phosphorylation in a cell-free assay. Some of them significantly reduced the growth of human osteogenic sarcoma (SaOS-2) cells. The best compound, in terms of inhibitory properties toward both Src and SaOS-2 cells, was further investigated and found to reduce bone resorption when used to treat mouse osteoclasts, without interfering with normal osteoblast growth. Moreover, its metabolic stability prompted its study on a human SaOS-2 xenograft tumor model in nude mice, where the compound reduced significantly both the volume and weight of the tumor. These experimental findings make the new compound an interesting hit in the field of bone-related diseases.

Huntington’s disease (HD) is a currently incurable neurodegenerative condition caused by an abnormally expanded polyglutamine tract in huntingtin (HTT). We identified novel modifiers of mutant HTT toxicity by performing a large-scale “druggable genome” siRNA screen in human cultured cells, followed by hit validation in Drosophila. We focused on glutaminyl cyclase (QPCT), which had one of the strongest effects on mutant HTT-induced toxicity and aggregation in the cell-based siRNA screen, and which also rescued these phenotypes in Drosophila. We found that QPCT inhibition induced the levels of the molecular chaperone alpha B-crystallin and reduced the aggregation of diverse proteins. We generated novel QPCT inhibitors using in silico methods followed by in vitro screens, which rescued the HD-related phenotypes in cell, Drosophila and zebrafish HD models. Our data reveal a novel HD druggable target affecting mutant huntingtin aggregation, and provide proof-of-principle for a discovery pipeline from druggable genome screen to drug development.

ABSTRACT:Prediction of clearance in drug discovery currently relies on human primary hepatocytes, which can vary widely in drug-metabolizing enzyme activity. Potential alternative in vitro models include the HepaRG cell (from immortalized hepatoma cells), which in culture can express drug-metabolizing enzymes to an extent comparable to that of primary hepatocytes. Utility of the HepaRG cell will depend on robust performance, relative to that of primary hepatocytes, in routine high-throughput analysis. In this study, we compared intrinsic clearance (CL int ) in the recently developed cryopreserved HepaRG cell system with CL int in human cryopreserved pooled hepatocytes and with CL int in vivo for 26 cytochrome P450 substrate drugs. There was quantitative agreement between CL int in HepaRG cells and human hepatocytes, which was linear throughout the range of CL int (1-2000 ml ⅐ min ؊1 ⅐ kg ؊1 ) and not dependent on particular cytochrome P450 involvement. Prediction of CL int in HepaRG cells was on average within 2-fold of in vivo CL int (using the well stirred liver model), but average fold error was clearance-dependent with greater underprediction (up to at least 5-fold) for the more highly cleared drugs. Recent reporting of this phenomenon in human hepatocytes was therefore confirmed with the hepatocytes used in this study, and hence the HepaRG cell system appears to share an apparently general tendency of clearance-limited CL int in cell models. This study shows the cryopreserved HepaRG cell system to be quantitatively comparable to human hepatocytes for prediction of clearance of drug cytochrome P450 substrates and to represent a promising alternative in vitro tool.

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