Discovery of Acylsulfonohydrazide-Derived Inhibitors of the Lysine Acetyltransferase, KAT6A, as Potent Senescence-Inducing Anti-Cancer Agents

J Med Chem. 2020 May 14;63(9):4655-4684. doi: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.9b02071. Epub 2020 Mar 19.

Abstract

A high-throughput screen designed to discover new inhibitors of histone acetyltransferase KAT6A uncovered CTX-0124143 (1), a unique aryl acylsulfonohydrazide with an IC50 of 1.0 μM. Using this acylsulfonohydrazide as a template, we herein disclose the results of our extensive structure-activity relationship investigations, which resulted in the discovery of advanced compounds such as 55 and 80. These two compounds represent significant improvements on our recently reported prototypical lead WM-8014 (3) as they are not only equivalently potent as inhibitors of KAT6A but are less lipophilic and significantly more stable to microsomal degradation. Furthermore, during this process, we discovered a distinct structural subclass that contains key 2-fluorobenzenesulfonyl and phenylpyridine motifs, culminating in the discovery of WM-1119 (4). This compound is a highly potent KAT6A inhibitor (IC50 = 6.3 nM; KD = 0.002 μM), competes with Ac-CoA by binding to the Ac-CoA binding site, and has an oral bioavailability of 56% in rats.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Antineoplastic Agents / chemical synthesis
  • Antineoplastic Agents / pharmacokinetics
  • Antineoplastic Agents / pharmacology*
  • Biological Availability
  • Drug Discovery
  • Drug Stability
  • Histone Acetyltransferases / antagonists & inhibitors*
  • Humans
  • Hydrazines / chemical synthesis
  • Hydrazines / chemistry
  • Hydrazines / pharmacokinetics
  • Hydrazines / pharmacology*
  • Male
  • Mice
  • Microsomes, Liver / metabolism
  • Molecular Structure
  • Rats, Sprague-Dawley
  • Structure-Activity Relationship
  • Sulfonamides / chemical synthesis
  • Sulfonamides / chemistry
  • Sulfonamides / metabolism
  • Sulfonamides / pharmacokinetics
  • Sulfonamides / pharmacology*

Substances

  • 2-Fluoro-N'-(3-fluoro-5-(pyridin-2-yl)benzoyl)benzenesulfonohydrazide
  • Antineoplastic Agents
  • Hydrazines
  • Sulfonamides
  • Histone Acetyltransferases
  • Kat6a protein, rat