The profound efficacy, yet associated toxicity of pan-BET inhibitors is well documented. The possibility of an ameliorated safety profile driven by significantly selective (>100-fold) inhibition of a subset of the eight bromodomains is enticing, but challenging given the close homology. Herein, we describe the X-ray crystal structure-directed optimization of a novel weak fragment ligand with a pan-second bromodomain (BD2) bias, to potent and highly BD2 selective inhibitors. A template hopping approach, enabled by our parallel research into an orthogonal template (15, GSK046), was the basis for the high selectivity observed. This culminated in two tool molecules, 20 (GSK620) and 56 (GSK549), which showed an anti-inflammatory phenotype in human whole blood, confirming their cellular target engagement. Excellent broad selectivity, developability, and in vivo oral pharmacokinetics characterize these tools, which we hope will be of broad utility to the field of epigenetics research.

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To evaluate how the calculation of a crystal energy landscape can be used in the solid-form screening of pharmaceuticals, a Knowledge Transfer Secondment between GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and University College London was established to carry out computational crystal structure prediction (CSP) and further guided experimentation on a molecule from GSK's compound collection. The molecule chosen was 6- [(5-chloro-2-([(4-chloro-2fluorophenyl)methyl]oxy)phenyl)methyl]-2-pyridinecarboxylic acid (GSK269984B) since the preliminary thermodynamic form screening had only identified one anhydrate, Form I. The calculations confirmed that Form I is the most thermodynamically stable form. The thermodynamically competitive computed structures all had very different conformations of GSK269984B, and further experiments were designed to attempt to generate these conformations in solution and hence the crystalline solid. The experimental screening generated four novel solvates which all eventually transformed to Form I, two of which could also be structurally characterized by single crystal X-ray diffraction. The molecular conformation (apart from the position of the polar proton) in all three crystal structures was, however, very similar. GSK269984B appears to have an unusually small number of solid forms because there is no kinetic barrier to crystallizing in the most stable conformation which corresponds to the most thermodynamically stable and densely packed structure.

Detailed analysis of X-ray diffraction data from four single crystals of eniluracil, prepared under different crystallization conditions, confirms a picture in which the crystals exhibit different degrees of disorder, which is also suggested by the computed low energy crystal structures. Since several of these crystal structures that effectively differ by an interchange of the oxygen and hydrogen atoms on C(4) and C( 6) are essentially equi-energetic, growth errors that may be difficult to reverse are practically inevitable. The structural variations observed for the crystals of eniluracil studied are more appropriately described in terms of variable degrees of disorder rather than polymorphism. Analysis of the computed crystal energy landscape for interchangeable hydrogen-bonded (or other strong) motifs is, therefore, shown to be a valuable complement to X-ray diffraction and solid-state NMR for understanding and characterizing disorder in organic solid state systems. In the case of eniluracil, this detailed picture probably accounts for the challenges in devising a robust production process for this anticancer agent in the 1990s. The specific nature of the disorder accounts for different structures being obtained from powder X-ray diffraction data of different samples, and the possibility of publishable single crystal X-ray refinements also being interpreted as polymorphism rather than disorder.

The leishmaniases are diseases that affect millions of people across the world, in particular visceral leishmaniasis (VL) which is fatal unless treated. Current standard of care for VL suffers from multiple issues and there is a limited pipeline of new candidate drugs. As such, there is a clear unmet medical need to identify new treatments. This paper describes the optimization of a phenotypic hit against Leishmania donovani , the major causative organism of VL. The key challenges were to balance solubility and metabolic stability while maintaining potency. Herein, strategies to address these shortcomings and enhance efficacy are discussed, culminating in the discovery of preclinical development candidate GSK3186899/DDD853651 ( 1 ) for VL.

The tetrahydronaphthalene-benzoxazine glucocorticoid receptor (GR) partial agonist 4b was optimized to produce potent full agonists of GR. Aromatic ring substitution of the tetrahydronaphthalene leads to weak GR antagonists. Discovery of an "agonist trigger" substituent on the saturated ring of the tetrahydronaphthalene leads to increased potency and efficacious GR agonism. These compounds are efficacy selective in an NFkB GR agonist assay (representing transrepression effects) over an MMTV GR agonist assay (representing transactivation effects). 52 and 60 have NFkB pIC(50) = 8.92 (105%) and 8.69 (92%) and MMTV pEC(50) = 8.20 (47%) and 7.75 (39%), respectively. The impact of the trigger substituent on agonism is modeled within GR and discussed. 36, 52, and 60 have anti-inflammatory activity in a mouse model of inflammation after topical dosing with 52 and 60, having an effect similar to that of dexamethasone. The original lead was discovered by a manual agreement docking method, and automation of this method is also described.

The high resolution X-ray,structures of38 proteins that bind phosphate containing groups and 36 proteins binding sulphate ions were analysed to characterise the structural feiturcs of anion binding sites in proteins. 34 of the 66 phosphates found were in close proximity to the amino terminus of an a-helix.27o/o of phosphate groups bind to only one amino acid, but there is a wide distribution, with 3 7o of phosphates binding to seven residues. Similarly, there is a large variability in the number of contacts each phosphate group makes to the protein. Thisianges frorit none (B% of phosphates) to nine (3% of phosphates). The most common number of contacts is two (28% of phosphates). The _most commonly found residue at helix-type binding sites is glycine, f-o$we! !f erg,Thr, Ser and Lys. At non-helix binding sites, the m-ost commdnly found"residue is Arg followed bI Try IIis, Lys and Ser. There is no tSryical phosphate binding site.There are marked differences between propensities fbr pliosphbte binding -at helix and non-helix type binding sites. Non-helix binding sites show more discrimination between the t5ryes of residues involved in binding when compared to the helix set. The propensities for binding of the amino acids reveal the expected trend of positively charged ".td pol*. residues being good at binding (although that for lysine is unexpectedly low) with the buiky non-polar les_id}es being poor at binding. Bulky residues are less likely to bind with the amide nitrogen. Sulphate binding sites show similar trends.Analysis of multiple sequence alignments that include phosphate and sulphate binding proteins reveals the degree ofconservation at the binding site residues compared to the average conservation ofresidues in the protein. Phosphate binding site residues are more conservJd than other residues in the protein with phosphate binding sites more highly conserved than sulphate binding sites.