Identification of a thienopyrimidine derivatives target by a kinome and chemical biology approach

Target identification through chemical biology has been considered one of the most efficient approaches for drug discovery. Thienopyrimidine derivatives were designed to discover potent IκB kinase β (IKKβ) inhibitors based on a known IKKβ inhibitor library. Most of the thienopyrimidine derivatives inhibited nitric oxide and tumor necrosis factor alpha, which are downstream of the NF-κB signaling pathway, but not IKKβ. To identify the appropriate targets of thienopyrimidine analogues, chemical biology approaches, including text mining and a subsequent kinase panel assay from the kinome profiling were used. Based on the results, Fms-like tyrosine kinase 3 was found to be the target for thienopyrimidine derivatives, and was confirmed to be a potent inhibitor for acute myeloid leukemia.