Phenylalanine-Based Inactivator of AKT Kinase: Design, Synthesis, and Biological Evaluation

Strategies to inhibit kinases by targeting the substrate binding site offer many advantages, including naturally evolved selectivity filters, but normally suffer from poor potency. In this work we propose a strategy to design and prepare covalent substrate-competitive kinase inhibitors as a method to improve potency. We have chosen AKT as the model kinase for this work. Using the AKT-GSK3β cocrystal structure and a reactive cysteine near the substrate binding site, we have identified phenylalanine (Phe) as an appropriate scaffold for the covalent inactivator portion of these inhibitors. By synthesizing compounds that incorporate cysteine-reactive electrophiles into phenylalanine and testing these compounds as AKT inhibitors, we have identified Boc-Phe-vinyl ketone as a submicromolar inactivator of AKT. We also show that Boc-Phe-vinyl ketone (1) potently inhibits AKT1 and inhibits cell growth in HCT116 and H460 cells nearly as well as AKT inhibitors GSK690693 and MK-2206, (2) is selective for kinases that possess an activation loop cysteine such as AKT, (3) requires the vinyl ketone for inactivation, (4) has inactivation that is time-dependent, and (5) alkylates Cys310 of AKT as shown by mass spectrometry. Identification of Boc-Phe-vinyl ketone as a covalent inactivator of AKT will allow the development of peptide and small-molecule substrate-competitive covalent kinase inhibitors that incorporate additional substrate binding elements to increase selectivity and potency. This proof-of-principle study also provides a basis to apply this strategy to other kinases of the AGC and CAMK families.