PURPOSE Pembrolizumab monotherapy has shown antitumor activity in patients with small-cell lung cancer (SCLC). The randomized, double-blind, phase III KEYNOTE-604 study compared pembrolizumab plus etoposide and platinum (EP) with placebo plus EP for patients with previously untreated extensive-stage (ES) SCLC. METHODS Eligible patients were randomly assigned 1:1 to pembrolizumab 200 mg once every 3 weeks or saline placebo for up to 35 cycles plus 4 cycles of EP. Primary end points were progression-free survival (PFS; RECIST version 1.1, blinded central review) and overall survival (OS) in the intention-to-treat population. Objective response rate (ORR) and duration of response were secondary end points. Prespecified efficacy boundaries were one-sided P = .0048 for PFS and .0128 for OS. RESULTS Of the 453 participants, 228 were randomly assigned to pembrolizumab plus EP and 225 to placebo plus EP. Pembrolizumab plus EP significantly improved PFS (hazard ratio [HR], 0.75; 95% CI, 0.61 to 0.91; P = .0023). Twelve-month PFS estimates were 13.6% with pembrolizumab plus EP and 3.1% with placebo plus EP. Although pembrolizumab plus EP prolonged OS, the significance threshold was not met (HR, 0.80; 95% CI, 0.64 to 0.98; P = .0164). Twenty-four-month OS estimates were 22.5% and 11.2%, respectively. ORR was 70.6% in the pembrolizumab plus EP group and 61.8% in the placebo plus EP group; the estimated proportion of responders remaining in response at 12 months was 19.3% and 3.3%, respectively. In the pembrolizumab plus EP and placebo plus EP groups, respectively, any-cause adverse events were grade 3-4 in 76.7% and 74.9%, grade 5 in 6.3% and 5.4%, and led to discontinuation of any drug in 14.8% and 6.3%. CONCLUSION Pembrolizumab plus EP significantly improved PFS compared with placebo plus EP as first-line therapy for patients with ES-SCLC. No unexpected toxicities were seen with pembrolizumab plus EP. These data support the benefit of pembrolizumab in ES-SCLC.

Mechanosensitive Piezo1 and Piezo2 channels transduce various forms of mechanical forces into cellular signals that play vital roles in many important biological processes in vertebrate organisms. Besides mechanical forces, Piezo1 is selectively activated by micromolar concentrations of the small molecule Yoda1 through an unknown mechanism. Here, using a combination of all-atom molecular dynamics simulations, calcium imaging and electrophysiology, we identify an allosteric Yoda1 binding pocket located in the putative mechanosensory domain, approximately 40 Å away from the central pore. Our simulations further indicate that the presence of the agonist correlates with increased tension-induced motions of the Yoda1-bound subunit. Our results suggest a model wherein Yoda1 acts as a molecular wedge, facilitating force-induced conformational changes, effectively lowering the channel’s mechanical threshold for activation. The identification of an allosteric agonist binding site in Piezo1 channels will pave the way for the rational design of future Piezo modulators with clinical value.

Piezo proteins are transmembrane ion channels which transduce many forms of mechanical stimuli into electrochemical signals. Their pore, formed by the assembly of three identical subunits, opens by an unknown mechanism. Here, to probe this mechanism, we investigate the interaction of Piezo1 with the small molecule agonist Yoda1. By engineering chimeras between mouse Piezo1 and its Yoda1-insensitive paralog Piezo2, we first identify a minimal protein region required for Yoda1 sensitivity. We next study the effect of Yoda1 on heterotrimeric Piezo1 channels harboring wild type subunits and Yoda1-insensitive mutant subunits. Using calcium imaging and patch-clamp electrophysiology, we show that hybrid channels harboring as few as one Yoda1-sensitive subunit exhibit Yoda1 sensitivity undistinguishable from homotrimeric wild type channels. Our results show that the Piezo1 pore remains fully open if only one subunit remains activated. This study sheds light on the gating and pharmacological mechanisms of a member of the Piezo channel family.

Mechanosensitive Piezo1 channels are essential mechanotransduction proteins in eukaryotes. Their curved transmembrane domains, called arms, create a convex membrane deformation, or footprint, which is predicted to flatten in response to increased membrane tension. Here, using a hyperbolic tangent model, we show that, due to the intrinsic bending rigidity of the membrane, the overlap of neighboring Piezo1 footprints produces a flattening of the Piezo1 footprints and arms. Multiple all-atom molecular dynamics simulations of Piezo1 further reveal that this tension-independent flattening is accompanied by gating motions that open an activation gate in the pore. This open state recapitulates experimentally obtained ionic selectivity, unitary conductance, and mutant phenotypes. Tracking ion permeation along the open pore reveals the presence of intracellular and extracellular fenestrations acting as cation-selective sites. Simulations also reveal multiple potential binding sites for phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate. We propose that the overlap of Piezo channel footprints may act as a cooperative mechanism to regulate channel activity.

Reversible covalent inhibitors have many clinical advantages over noncovalent or covalent drugs. However, apart from selecting a warhead, substantial efforts in design and synthesis are needed to optimize noncovalent interactions to improve target-selective binding. Computational prediction of binding affinity for reversible covalent inhibitors presents a unique challenge since the binding process consists of multiple steps, which are not necessarily independent of each other. In this study, we lay out the relation between relative binding free energy and the overall reversible covalent binding affinity using a two-state binding model. To prove the concept, we employed free energy perturbation (FEP) coupled with λ-exchange molecular dynamics method to calculate the binding free energy of a series of α-ketoamide analogs relative to a common warhead scaffold, in both noncovalent and covalent bond states, and for two highly homologous proteases, calpain-1 and calpain-2. We conclude that covalent binding affinity alone, in general, can be used to predict reversible covalent binding selectivity. However, exceptions may exist. Therefore, we also discuss the conditions under which the noncovalent binding step is no longer negligible and propose a novel approach that combines the relative FEP calculations with a single QM/MM calculation of warhead to predict the binding affinity and binding kinetics for a large number of reversible covalent inhibitors. Our FEP calculations also revealed that covalent and noncovalent states of an inhibitor do not necessarily exhibit the same selectivity. Thus, investigating both binding states, as well as the kinetics will provide extremely useful information for optimizing reversible covalent inhibitors.

Covalent drugs offer higher efficacy and longer duration of action than their noncovalent counterparts. Significant advances in computational methods for modeling covalent drugs are poised to shift the paradigm of small molecule therapeutics within the next decade. This viewpoint discusses the advantages of a two-state model for ranking reversible and irreversible covalent ligands and of more complex models for dissecting reaction mechanisms. The relation between these models highlights the complexity and diversity of covalent drug binding and provides opportunities for mechanism-based rational design.

Reversible covalent inhibitors have drawn increasing attention in drug design, as they are likely more potent than noncovalent inhibitors and less toxic than covalent inhibitors. Despite those advantages, the computational prediction of reversible covalent binding presents a formidable challenge because the binding process consists of multiple steps and quantum mechanics (QM) level calculation is needed to estimate the covalent binding free energy. It has been shown that the dissociation rates and the equilibrium dissociation constants vary significantly even with similar warheads, due to noncovalent interactions. We have previously used a simplistic two-state model for predicting the relative binding selectivity of reversible covalent inhibitors (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2017, 139, 17945). Here we go beyond binding selectivity and demonstrate that it is possible to use free energy perturbation (FEP) molecular dynamics (MD) to calculate the overall reversible covalent binding using a specially designed thermodynamic cycle. We show that FEP can predict the varying binding free energies of the analogs sharing a common α-ketoamide warhead. More importantly, our results revealed that the chemical modification away from warhead changes the binding affinity at both noncovalent and covalent binding states, and the computational prediction can be improved by considering the binding free energy of both states. Furthermore, we explored the possibility of using a more rapid computational method, Site-Identification by Ligand Competitive Saturation (SILCS), to rank the same set of reversible covalent inhibitors. We found that the fragment docking to a set of precomputed SILCS FragMaps produces a reasonable ranking. In conclusion, two independent approaches provided consistent results that the covalent binding state is suitable for the initial ranking of the reversible covalent drug candidates. For leadoptimization, the FEP approach described here can provide more rigorous and detailed information regarding how much the covalent and noncovalent binding states are contributing to the overall binding affinity, thus offering a new avenue for fine tuning the noncovalent interactions for optimizing reversible covalent drugs.

We report the synthesis of the hetero- and homoleptic ruthenium(II) complexes Ru(bpy)(2)L(2+), Ru(bpy)L(2)(2+) (bpy is 2,2'-bipyridine), and RuL(3)(2+) of six new bidentates L, the substituted pyrazolylpyridines 1-6 (1-substituted-3-(2-pyridinyl)-4,5,6,7-tetrahydroindazoles with substituents R = H, CH(3), Ph, or C(6)H(4)-4"-COOX where X = H, CH(3), or C(2)H(5)). These were fully characterized by (1)H- and (13)C-NMR spectroscopy and elemental analysis. The UV-visible spectra and redox properties of the complexes, some in the ruthenium(III) and reduced bipyridine oxidation states, are also discussed. The substituents R played a role in determining the stereochemistry of the Ru(bpy)L(2)(2+) and RuL(3)(2+) products. The reaction of Ru(DMSO)(4)Cl(2) with 3 equiv of L bearing aromatic substituents gave only meridional RuL(3)(2+) isomers. The one-step reaction of Ru(bpy)Cl(3).H(2)O with 2 equiv of L provided a mixture of the three possible Ru(bpy)L(2)(2+) isomers, from which one symmetric isomer (labeled beta) was isolated pure. A trans arrangement of the pyrazole groups was deduced by (1)H-NMR and confirmed by X-ray crystallography for one such stereomer (beta-[Ru(bpy)(5)(2)](PF(6))(2), R = C(6)H(4)-4"-COOC(2)H(5)). In contrast, Ru(DMSO)(4)Cl(2) reacted with 2 equiv of L and then 1 equiv of bpy to selectively form the other symmetric isomer (labeled alpha) where the pyridine groups of L are trans. Crystal data for beta-[Ru(bpy)(5)(2)](PF(6))(2) (C(52)H(50)N(8)O(4)F(12)P(2)Ru) with Mo Kalpha (lambda = 0.710 73 Å) radiation at 295 K: a = 28.442(13) Å, b = 18.469(15) Å, c = 23.785(9) Å, beta = 116.76(0) degrees, monoclinic, space group C2/c, Z = 8. Fully anisotropic (except for H and disordered F atoms), full-matrix, weighted least-squares refinement on F(2) gave a weighted R on F(2) of 0.2573 corresponding to R on F of 0.1031 for data where F > 4sigma(F ).