Discovery and development of extreme selective inhibitors of the ITD and D835Y mutant FLT3 kinases.

Aberrant activation of FMS-like tyrosine receptor kinase 3 (FLT3) is implicated in the pathogenesis of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in 20-30% of patients. In this study we identified a highly selective (phenylethenyl)quinazoline compound family as novel potent inhibitors of the FLT3-ITD and FLT3-D835Y kinases. Their prominent effects were confirmed by biochemical and cellular proliferation assays followed by mice xenograft studies.

Targeted drug combination therapy design based on driver genes.

Targeted therapies against cancer types with more than one driver gene hold bright but elusive promise, since approved drugs are not available for all driver mutations and monotherapies often result in resistance. Targeting multiple driver genes in different pathways at the same time may provide an impact extensive enough to fight resistance. Our goal was to find synergistic drug combinations based on the availability of targeted drugs and their biological activity profiles and created an associated compound library based on driver gene-related protein targets.

Characterization of new, efficient Mycobacterium tuberculosis topoisomerase-I inhibitors and their interaction with human ABC multidrug transporters.

Drug resistant tuberculosis (TB) is a major worldwide health problem. In addition to the bacterial mechanisms, human drug transporters limiting the cellular accumulation and the pharmacological disposition of drugs also influence the efficacy of treatment. Mycobacterium tuberculosis topoisomerase-I (MtTopo-I) is a promising target for antimicrobial treatment.

Discovery and optimization of novel benzothiophene-3-carboxamides as highly potent inhibitors of Aurora kinases A and B.

Aurora kinases as regulators of cell division have become promising therapeutic targets recently. Here we report novel, low molecular weight benzothiophene-3-carboxamide derivatives designed and optimized for inhibiting Aurora kinases. The most effective compound 36 inhibits Aurora kinases in vitro in the nanomolar range and diminishes HCT 116 cell viability blocking cytokinesis and inducing apoptosis.

Synthesis and characterization of amino acid substituted sunitinib analogues for the treatment of AML.

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is the most common type of leukemia in adults. Sunitinib, a multikinase inhibitor, was the first Fms-like tyrosine kinase 3 (FLT3) inhibitor clinically used against AML. Off-target effects are a major concern for multikinase inhibitors.

Novel compounds with potent CDK9 inhibitory activity for the treatment of myeloma.

Cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs) and Polo-like kinases (PLKs) play key role in the regulation of the cell cycle. The aim of our study was originally the further development of our recently discovered polo-like kinase 1 (PLK1) inhibitors. A series of new 2,4-disubstituted pyrimidine derivatives were synthesized around the original hit, but their PLK1 inhibitory activity was very poor.

Development of a 3D Tissue Culture-Based High-Content Screening Platform That Uses Phenotypic Profiling to Discriminate Selective Inhibitors of Receptor Tyrosine Kinases.

3D tissue cultures provide a more physiologically relevant context for the screening of compounds, compared with 2D cell cultures. Cells cultured in 3D hydrogels also show complex phenotypes, increasing the scope for phenotypic profiling. Here we describe a high-content screening platform that uses invasive human prostate cancer cells cultured in 3D in standard 384-well assay plates to study the activity of potential therapeutic small molecules and antibody biologics.

Design and synthesis of new imidazo[1,2-a]pyridine and imidazo[1,2-a]pyrazine derivatives with antiproliferative activity against melanoma cells.

Melanoma is an aggressive form of skin cancer and it is generally associated with poor prognosis in patients with late-stage disease. Due to the increasing occurrence of melanoma, there is a need for the development of novel therapies. A new series of diarylamide and diarylurea derivatives containing imidazo[1,2-a]pyridine or imidazo[1,2-a]pyrazine scaffold was designed and synthesized to investigate their in vitro efficacy against the A375P human melanoma cell line.

Novel compounds reducing IRS-1 serine phosphorylation for treatment of diabetes.

Activation of various interacting stress kinases, particularly the c-Jun N-terminal kinases (JNK), and a concomitant phosphorylation of insulin receptor substrate 1 (IRS-1) at serine 307 play a central role both in insulin resistance and in β-cell dysfunction. IRS-1 phosphorylation is stimulated by elevated free fatty acid levels through different pathways in obesity. A series of novel pyrido[2,3-d]pyrimidin-7-one derivatives were synthesized as potential antidiabetic agents, preventing IRS-1 phosphorylation at serine 307 in a cellular model of lipotoxicity and type 2 diabetes.

Targeting vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2 and protein kinase D1 related pathways by a multiple kinase inhibitor in angiogenesis and inflammation related processes in vitro.

Emerging evidence suggests that the vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2 (VEGFR2) and protein kinase D1 (PKD1) signaling axis plays a critical role in normal and pathological angiogenesis and inflammation related processes. Despite all efforts, the currently available therapeutic interventions are limited. Prior studies have also proved that a multiple target inhibitor can be more efficient compared to a single target one.

Lead selection and characterization of antitubercular compounds using the Nested Chemical Library.

Discovering new drugs to treat tuberculosis more efficiently and to overcome multidrug resistance is a world health priority. To find novel antitubercular agents several approaches have been used in various institutions worldwide, including target-based approaches against several validated mycobacterial enzymes and phenotypic screens. We screened more than 17,000 compounds from Vichem's Nested Chemical Library™ using an integrated strategy involving whole cell-based assays with Corynebacterium glutamicum and Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and target-based assays with protein kinases PknA, PknB and PknG as well as other targets such as PimA and bacterial topoisomerases simultaneously.

NADPH oxidase 4 is expressed in pulmonary artery adventitia and contributes to hypertensive vascular remodeling.

Objective: Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a progressive disease arising from remodeling and narrowing of pulmonary arteries (PAs) resulting in high pulmonary blood pressure and ultimately right ventricular failure. Elevated production of reactive oxygen species by NADPH oxidase 4 (Nox4) is associated with increased pressure in PH. However, the cellular location of Nox4 and its contribution to aberrant vascular remodeling in PH remains poorly understood.

Discovery and Biological Evaluation of Novel Dual EGFR/c-Met Inhibitors.

Activating mutations in the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) have been identified in a subset of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), which is one of the leading cancer types worldwide. Application of EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors leads to acquired resistance by secondary EGFR mutations or by amplification of the hepatocyte growth factor receptor (c-Met) gene. Although several EGFR and c-Met inhibitors have been reported, potent dual EGFR/c-Met inhibitors, which can overcome this latter resistance mechanism, have hitherto not been published and have not reached clinical trials.

[Development and biochemical characterization of EGFR/c-Met dual inhibitors].

The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) family has been well-known for more than ten years as the target of non-small lung carcinoma (NSCLC) which is one of the leading cause of mortality among the cancer types. The receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors (gefitinib, erlotinib, lapatinib) which have been applied in the therapy, are not able to inhibit the progression of this disease perfectly because of resistance. It has been demonstrated that the amplification of mesenchymal-epithelial transition factor (c-Met) or secondary mutation of EGFR kinase causes the resistance against EGFR inhibitors in 18-20 percent of the cases.

[Development and study of structure-activity relationship of drugs against Mycobacterium tuberculosis].

Tuberculosis is considered to be one of the major health problem not only in the less developed countries but in the economically developed countries as well. Roughly one third of the world's population are infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis and a significant part of them are carriers of latent tuberculosis. From ten percent of these latent infections are developing the active TB disease and fifty percent of them die from the illness without appropriate treatment.

[Developing FGFR inhibitors as potential anti-cancer agents].

Fibroblast Growth Factor Receptor (FGFR) family is a sequentially highly related subgroup of membrane proteins consisting of four tyrosine kinase type enzyme: FGFR1, FGFR2, FGFR3 and FGFR4. These are kinases of great interest in a wide spectrum of physiological processes such as tissue repair via controlling cell proliferation. As initiatiors of cell proliferation, in some cases they have leading roles in several types of cancer, eg.

Protein kinase inhibitor as a potential candidate for epilepsy treatment.

Purpose: Effects of the "VID-82925" kinase inhibitor molecule were investigated both during the developing phase as well as during the stable phase of the focus with spontaneous recurrent seizures using the 4-AP-induced in vivo epilepsy model in anesthetized rats.

Methods: In electrophysiologic experiments, VID-82925 (0.85 mg/kg) was injected intravenously either before the induction (pretreatment) or after the development of the stable focus (treatment).

Leads for antitubercular compounds from kinase inhibitor library screens.

Discovering new drugs to treat tuberculosis more efficiently and to overcome multidrug resistance is a world health priority. To find antimycobacterial scaffolds, we screened a kinase inhibitor library of more than 12,000 compounds using an integrated strategy involving whole cell-based assays with Corynebacterium glutamicum and Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and a target-based assay with the protein kinase PknA. Seventeen "hits" came from the whole cell-based screening approach, from which three displayed minimal inhibitory concentrations (MIC) against M.

[Development of PAK1 kinase inhibitors with "in silico" modeling methods].

The important role of several protein kinases in many diseases has been well documented. Nowadays they are known as an important class of drug targets. The similarity of the structures of the protein kinases makes the development of selective inhibitors difficult.

Tyrosine kinase inhibitors - small molecular weight compounds inhibiting EGFR.

Abnormally elevated EGFR kinase activity can lead to various pathological states, including proliferative diseases such as cancer. The development of selective protein kinase inhibitors has become an important area of drug discovery for the potential treatment of a variety of solid tumors such as breast, ovarian and colorectal cancers, NSCLC, and carcinoma of the head and neck. There are three small molecule EGFR kinase inhibitor drugs in clinical use (gefitinib, erlotinib and lapatinib), and several others are currently undergoing clinical development.

Drug discovery in the kinase inhibitory field using the Nested Chemical Library technology.

Kinase inhibitors are at the forefront of modern drug research, where mostly three technologies are used for hit-and-lead finding: high throughput screening of random libraries, three-dimensional structure-based drug design based on X-ray data, and focused libraries around limited number of new cores. Our novel Nested Chemical Library (NCL) (Vichem Chemie Research Ltd., Budapest, Hungary) technology is based on a knowledge base approach, where focused libraries around selected cores are used to generate pharmacophore models.

Comparison of predictive ability of water solubility QSPR models generated by MLR, PLS and ANN methods.

ADME/Tox computational screening is one of the most hot topics of modern drug research. About one half of the potential drug candidates fail because of poor ADME/Tox properties. Since the experimental determination of water solubility is time-consuming also, reliable computational predictions are needed for the pre-selection of acceptable "drug-like" compounds from diverse combinatorial libraries.

Validation subset selections for extrapolation oriented QSPAR models.

One of the most important features of QSPAR models is their predictive ability. The predictive ability of QSPAR models should be checked by external validation. In this work we examined three different types of external validation set selection methods for their usefulness in in-silico screening.