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Published on: May 11, 2018
Design of Potent mRNA Decapping Scavenger Enzyme (DcpS) Inhibitors with Improved Physicochemical Properties To
Ariamala Gopalsamy1,2, Arjun Narayanan1,2, Shenping Liu1,2
1Medicine Design and ‡Rare Disease Research Unit, #Pharmacokinetics and Drug Metabolism, Pfizer , 610 Main Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States.
Abstract:
The C-5 substituted 2,4-diaminoquinazoline RG3039 (compound 1), a member of a chemical series that was identified and optimized using an SMN2 promoter screen, prolongs survival and improves motor function in a mouse model of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). It is a potent inhibitor of the mRNA decapping scavenger enzyme (DcpS), but the mechanism whereby DcpS inhibition leads to therapeutic benefit is unclear. Compound 1 is a dibasic lipophilic molecule that is predicted to accumulate in lysosomes. To understand if the in vivo efficacy is due to DcpS inhibition or other effects resulting from the physicochemical properties of the chemotype, we undertook structure based molecular design to identify DcpS inhibitors with improved physicochemical properties. Herein we describe the design, synthesis, and in vitro pharmacological characterization of these DcpS inhibitors along with the in vivo mouse CNS PK profile of PF-DcpSi (compound 24), one of the analogs found to be efficacious in SMA mouse model.

