Discovery of new Syk inhibitors through structure-based virtual screening

Spleen tyrosine kinase (Syk) is an attractive target for the discovery of new treatments for inflammatory and autoimmune disorders. Structure-based virtual screening was performed for identifying novel scaffolds of Syk inhibitors. A total of 16 hits were discovered in the enzyme assay and 8 compounds had an IC₅₀ value lower than 10μM. In particular, compound 11 (IC₅₀=3.2μM) was active in the cellular Syk assay and could inhibit lymphocytes proliferation in a dose-dependent manner, which could be used as a good starting point for the discovery of new class of Syk inhibitors.