Cyclin-Dependent Kinase 4 and 6 Inhibitors in Cell Cycle Dysregulation for Breast Cancer Treatment

In cell development, the cell cycle is crucial, and the cycle progression’s main controllers are endogenous CDK inhibitors, cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs), and cyclins. In response to the mitogenic signal, cyclin D is produced and retinoblastoma protein (Rb) is phosphorylated due to activated CDK4/CDK6. This causes various proteins required in the cell cycle progression to be generated. In addition, complexes of CDK1-cyclin A/B, CDK2-cyclin E/A, and CDK4/CDK6-cyclin D are required in each phase of this progression. Cell cycle dysregulation has the ability to lead to cancer. Based on its role in the cell cycle, CDK has become a natural target of anticancer therapy. Therefore, understanding the CDK structures and the complex formed with the drug, helps to foster the development of CDK inhibitors. This development starts from non-selective CDK inhibitors to selective CDK4/CDK6 inhibitors, and these have been applied in clinical cancer treatment. However, these inhibitors currently require further development for various hematologic malignancies and solid tumors, based on the results demonstrated. In drug development, the main strategy is primarily to prevent and asphyxiate drug resistance, thus a determination of specific biomarkers is required to increase the therapy’s effectiveness as well as patient selection suitability in order to avoid therapy failure. This review is expected to serve as a reference for early and advanced-stage researchers in designing new molecules or repurposing existing molecules as CDK4/CDK6 inhibitors to treat breast cancer.     

Differential binding of inhibitors to active and inactive CDK2 provides insights for drug design

The cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs) have been characterized in complex with a variety of inhibitors, but the majority of structures solved are in the inactive form. We have solved the structures of six inhibitors in both the monomeric CDK2 and binary CDK2/cyclinA complexes and demonstrate that significant differences in ligand binding occur depending on the activation state. The binding mode of two ligands in particular varies substantially in active and inactive CDK2. Furthermore, energetic analysis of CDK2/cyclin/inhibitors demonstrates that a good correlation exists between the in vitro potency and the calculated energies of interaction, but no such relationship exists for CDK2/inhibitor structures. These results confirm that monomeric CDK2 ligand complexes do not fully reflect active conformations, revealing significant implications for inhibitor design while also suggesting that the monomeric CDK2 conformation can be selectively inhibited.     

Structural determinants of CDK4 inhibition and design of selective ATP competitive inhibitors

A number of selective inhibitors of the CDK4/cyclin D1 complex have been reported recently. Due to the absence of an experimental CDK4 structure, the ligand and protein determinants contributing to CDK4 selectivity are poorly understood at present. Here, we report the use of computational methods to elucidate the characteristics of selectivity and to derive the structural basis for specific, high-affinity binding of inhibitors to the CDK4 active site. From these data, the hypothesis emerged that appropriate incorporation of an ionizable function into a CDK2 inhibitor results in more favorable binding to CDK4. This knowledge was applied to the design of compounds in the otherwise CDK2-selective 2-anilino-4-(thiazol-5-yl)pyrimidine pharmacophore that are potent and highly selective ATP antagonists of CDK4/cyclin D1. The findings of this study also have significant implications in the design of CDK4 mimic structures based on CDK2.     

Molecular dynamics simulations on the inhibition of Cyclin-Dependent Kinases 2 and 5 in the presence of activators

Interests in CDK2 and CDK5 have stemmed mainly from their association with cancer and neuronal migration or differentiation related diseases and the need to design selective inhibitors for these kinases. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations have not only become a viable approach to drug design because of advances in computer technology but are increasingly an integral part of drug discovery processes. It is common in MD simulations of inhibitor/CDK complexes to exclude the activator of the CDKs in the structural models to keep computational time tractable. In this paper, we present simulation results of CDK2 and CDK5 with roscovitine using models with and without their activators (cyclinA and p25). While p25 was found to induce slight changes in CDK5, the calculations support that cyclinA leads to significant conformational changes near the active site of CDK2. This suggests that detailed and structure-based inhibitor design targeted at these CDKs should employ activator-included models of the kinases. Comparisons between P/CDK2/cyclinA/roscovitine and CDK5/p25/roscovitine complexes reveal differences in the conformations of the glutamine around the active sites, which may be exploited to find highly selective inhibitors with respect to CDK2 and CDK5.     

Understanding and modulating cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor specificity: molecular modeling and biochemical evaluation of pyrazolopyrimidinones as CDK2/cyclin A and CDK4/cyclin D1 inhibitors

Summary Cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs) play a key role in regulating the cell cycle. The cyclins, their activating agents, and endogenous CDK inhibitors are frequently mutated in human cancers, making CDKs interesting targets for cancer chemotherapy. Our aim is the discovery of selective CDK4/cyclin D1 inhibitors. An ATP-competitive pyrazolopyrimidinone CDK inhibitor was identified by HTS and docked into a CDK4 homology model. The resulting binding model was consistent with available SAR and was validated by a subsequent CDK2/inhibitor crystal structure. An iterative cycle of chemistry and modeling led to a 70-fold improvement in potency. Small substituent changes resulted in large CDK4/CDK2 selectivity changes. The modeling revealed that selectivity is largely due to hydrogen-bonded interactions with only two kinase residues. This demonstrates that small differences between enzymes can efficiently be exploited in the design of selective inhibitors.     

3D-QSAR和分子对接研究吲哚咔唑类细胞周期蛋白激酶抑制剂的选择性

细胞周期蛋白激酶(cyclin-dependent kinases, CDKs)是近年来治疗肿瘤的重要靶标. 由于大多数激酶ATP结合位点的保守性, CDK选择性激酶抑制剂的开发成为当前的研发难点和热点. 针对吲哚咔唑类CDK抑制剂, 我们采用比较分子力场分析方法(CoMFA)建立了CDK2-QSAR(quantitative structure-activity relationship)和CDK4-QSSR(quantitative structure-selectivity relationship)模型. 所建模型的交叉验证系数q2分别为0.722和0.703; 非交叉验证系数r2分别为0.977和0.946, 表明其具有较好的预测能力. 同时, 用分子对接的方法分析了这类化合物与CDK4同源模建结构的作用模式, 根据这两个模型发现, 吲哚咔唑类化合物的R5和R6位长链取代对CDK4的选择性具有一定的影响, 而且结合其作用模式比较合理地解释了这类抑制剂的选择性原因, 这对CDKs的选择性研究具有一定的指导意义.     

Significance of water molecules in the inhibition of cylin-dependent kinase 2 and 5 complexes

Interest in CDK2 and CDK5 has stemmed mainly from their association with cancer and neuronal migration or differentiation related diseases and the need to design selective inhibitors for these kinases. In the present paper, eight Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations are carried out to examine the importance of structure and dynamics of water in the active site of both CDK2 and CDK5 complexes with roscovitine and indirubin analogues. Together with previous results, the current work shows a highly conserved water-involved hydrogen bonding (HB) network in both CDK2- and CDK5-indirubin combinations to complete information from the X-ray crystallography. The simulations suggest the importance of such a network for combining the inhibitor to the host protein as well as the significance of using an activated CDK as a template when designing new inhibitors. Different binding patterns of roscovitine in CDK2 and CDK5 are detected during the simulations because of the different binding conformations of the group on the C2 side chain, which might offer a clue toward finding highly selective inhibitors with regards to CDK2 and CDK5.     

Selective ATP competitive leads of CDK4: Discovery by 3D-QSAR pharmacophore mapping and molecular docking approach

The discovery of ATP competitive CDK4 inhibitors is an on-going challenging task in cancer therapy. Here, an attempt has been made to develop new leads targeting ATP binding site of CDK4 by applying 3D-QSAR pharmacophore mapping and molecular docking methods The outcome of 6 leads offers a significant contribution for selective CDK4 inhibition, since they show potential binding interactions with Val⁹⁶, Arg¹⁰¹, and Glu¹⁴⁴ residues of CDK4, that are unique and from other kinases. It is worth noting that there is a striking similarity in binding interactions of the leads and known CDK4 inhibitors, namely Abemaciclib, Palbociclib and Ribociclib. Further key features, including high dock score value, good predicted activity, scaffold diversity, and the acceptable ADME profile of leads, provide a great opportunity for the development of highly potent and selective ATP competitive inhibitors of CDK4.     

Computational Analysis for Residue-Speci c CDK2-Inhibitor Bindings

Cyclin-dependent kinase 2 (CDK2) is a key macromolecule in cell cycle regulation. In cancer cells, CDK2 is often overexpressed and its inhibition is an effective therapy of many cancers including breast carcinomas, leukemia, and lymphomas. Quantitative characterization of the interactions between CDK2 and its inhibitors at atomic level may provide a deep understanding of protein-inhibitor interactions and clues for more effective drug discovery. In this study, we have used the computational alanine scanning approach in combination with an efficient interaction entropy method to study the microscopic mechanism of binding between CDK2 and its 13 inhibitors. The total binding free energy from the method shows a correlation of 0.76?0.83 with the experimental values. The free energy component reveals two binding mode in the 13 complexes, namely van der Waals dominant, and electrostatic dominant. Decomposition of the total energy to per-residue contribution allows us to identify five hydrophobic residues as hot spots during the binding. Residues that are responsible for determining the strength of the binding were also analyzed.     

Identification of cylin-dependent kinase 1 inhibitors of a new chemical type by structure-based design and database searching

We have selected cyclin-dependent kinase 1 (CDK1), an enzyme participating in the regulation of the cell cycle, as a target in our efforts to discover new antitumor agents. By exploiting available structural information, we designed an ATP-site directed ligand scaffold that allowed us to identify 4-(3-methyl-1,4-dioxo-1,4-dihydro-naphthalen-2-ylamino)-benzenesulfonamide as a new potent inhibitor of CDK1 in a subsequent database search. The synthesis and testing of some analogues confirmed the interest of this class of compounds as novel CDK1 inhibitors.     

Development of CDK4/6 Inhibitors: A Five Years Update

The inhibition of cyclin dependent kinases 4 and 6 plays a role in aromatase inhibitor resistant metastatic breast cancer. Three dual CDK4/6 inhibitors have been approved for the breast cancer treatment that, in combination with the endocrine therapy, dramatically improved the survival outcomes both in first and later line settings. The developments of the last five years in the search for new selective CDK4/6 inhibitors with increased selectivity, treatment efficacy, and reduced adverse effects are reviewed, considering the small-molecule inhibitors and proteolysis-targeting chimeras (PROTACs) approaches, mainly pointing at structure-activity relationships, selectivity against different kinases and antiproliferative activity.     

Small molecules as inhibitors of cyclin-dependent kinases

Cell division (mitosis) is one of the basic requirements for multicellular oranisms. The capability of a cell to replicate enables a complex assembly to be created. Faulty regulation of the control mechanism in the cell cycle leads to an excessive cell proliferation and is the cause of cancer. The key position of the cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs) and their direct partners, as well as the fact that the majority of malign illnesses show defects in at least one of these key players of the cell cycle, is of great interest for the development of low-molecular-weight CDK inhibitors. In this Review an overview of the different structural classes of ATP-competitive inhibitors of CDKs are given, whose devlopment was aimed at battling cancer. The Review shows how far the development of selective CDK inhibitors has progressed and to what extent the expectations for such drugs have so far been fulfilled.     

Synthesis, crystal structure and biological activity of beta-carboline based selective CDK4-cyclin D1 inhibitors

The design, synthesis and biological activity of a series of non-planar dihydro-beta-carboline and beta-carboline-based derivatives of the toxic anticancer agent fascaplysin is presented. We show these compounds to be selective inhibitors of CDK4 over CDK2 with an IC50 (CDK4-cyclin D1) = 11 micromol for the best compound in the series 4d. The crystallographic analysis of some of the compounds synthesised (3b/d and 4a-d) was carried out, in an effort to estimate the structural similarities between the designed inhibitors and the model compound fascaplysin.     

Virtual screening studies to design potent CDK2-cyclin A inhibitors

The cell division cycle is controlled by cyclin-dependent kinases (CDK), which consist of a catalytic subunit (CDK1-CDK8) and a regulatory subunit (cyclin A-H). Pharmacophore analysis indicates that the best inhibitor model consists of (1) two hydrogen bond acceptors, (2) one hydrogen bond donor, and (3) one hydrophobic feature. The HypoRefine pharmacophore model gave an enrichment factor of 1.31 and goodness of fit score of 0.76. Docking studies were carried out to explore the structural requirements for the CDK2-cyclin A inhibitors and to construct highly predictive models for the design of new inhibitors. Docking studies demonstrate the important role of hydrogen bond and hydrophobic interactions in determining the inhibitor-receptor binding affinity. The validated pharmacophore model is further used for retrieving the most active hits/lead from a virtual library of molecules. Subsequently, docking studies were performed on the hits, and novel series of potent leads were suggested based on the interaction energy between CDK2-cyclin A and the putative inhibitors.     

Bisarylmaleimides & the Corresponding Indolocarbazoles as Kinase Inhibitors

Cyclin dependent kinases (CDKs) have recently raised considerable attention because of their central role in the regulation of cell cycle progression. A high incidence of genetic mutation of CDK substrates and deregulation of CDK modulators were found in a number of disease states, particularly in cancer. A novel series of unsymmetrical substituted indolocarbazoles were synthesized and their kinase inhibitory capability was evaluated in vitro. 6-Substituted indolocarbazoles were found to b…     

Molecular dynamics, density functional, ADMET predictions, virtual screening, and molecular interaction field studies for identification and evaluation of novel potential CDK2 inhibitors in cancer therapy

In this work, we have used molecular dynamics, density functional theory, virtual screening, ADMET predictions, and molecular interaction field studies to design and propose eight novel potential inhibitors of CDK2. The eight molecules proposed showed interesting structural characteristics that are required for inhibiting the CDK2 activity and show potential as drug candidates for the treatment of cancer. The parameters related to the Rule of Five were calculated, and only one of the molecules violated more than one parameter. One of the proposals and one of the drug-like compounds selected by virtual screening indicated to be promising candidates for CDK2-based cancer therapy.