Discovery of an Orally Available Janus Kinase 3 Selective Covalent Inhibitor

JAK family kinases are important mediators of immune cell signaling and Janus Kinase 3 (JAK3) has long been indicated as a potential target for autoimmune disorders. Intensive efforts to develop highly selective JAK3 inhibitors have been underway for many years. However, because of JAK3's strong binding preference to adenosine 5'-triphosphate (ATP), a number of inhibitors exhibit large gaps between enzymatic and cellular potency, which hampers efforts to dissect the roles of JAK3 in cellular settings. Using a targeted covalent inhibitor approach, we discovered compound 32, which overcame ATP competition (1 mM) in the enzymatic assay, and demonstrated significantly improved inhibitory activity for JAK3-dependent signaling in mouse CTLL-2 and human peripheral blood mononuclear cells. Compound 32 also exhibited high selectivity within the JAK family and good pharmacokinetic properties. Thus, it may serve as a highly valuable tool molecule to study the overlapping roles of JAK family kinases in complex biological settings. Our study also suggested that for covalent kinase inhibitors, especially those targeting kinases with low K_m ATP values, the reversible interactions between molecules and proteins should be carefully optimized to improve the overall potency.