Discovery and Optimization of Biaryl Alkyl Ethers as a Novel Class of Highly Selective, CNS-Penetrable, and Orally Active Adaptor Protein-2-Associated Kinase 1 (AAK1) Inhibitors for the Potential Treatment of Neuropathic Pain

Guanglin Luo, Ling Chen, Walter A. Kostich, Brian Hamman, Jason Allen, Amy Easton, Clotilde Bourin, Michael Gulianello, Jonathan Lippy, Susheel Nara, Sreenivasulu Naidu Pattipati, Kumaran Dandapani, Manoj Dokania, Pradeep Vattikundala, Vivek Sharma, Saravanan Elavazhagan, Manoj Kumar Verma, Manish Lal Das, Santosh Wagh, Anand BalakrishnanBenjamin M. Johnson, Kenneth S. Santone, George Thalody, Rex Denton, Hariharan Saminathan, Vinay K. Holenarsipur, Anoop Kumar, Abhijith Rao, Siva Prasad Putlur, Sarat Kumar Sarvasiddhi, Ganesh Shankar, Justin V. Louis, Manjunath Ramarao, Charles M. Conway, Yu Wen Li, Rick Pieschl, Yuan Tian, Yang Hong, Linda Bristow, Charles F. Albright, Joanne J. Bronson, John E. MacOr, Carolyn D. Dzierba

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Recent mouse knockout studies identified adapter protein-2-associated kinase 1 (AAK1) as a viable target for treating neuropathic pain. BMS-986176/LX-9211 (4), as a highly selective, CNS-penetrable, and potent AAK1 inhibitor, has advanced into phase II human trials. On exploring the structure-activity relationship (SAR) around this biaryl alkyl ether chemotype, several additional compounds were found to be highly selective and potent AAK1 inhibitors with good druglike properties. Among these, compounds 43 and 58 showed very good efficacy in two neuropathic pain rat models and had excellent CNS penetration and spinal cord target engagement. Both compounds also exhibited favorable physicochemical and oral pharmacokinetic (PK) properties. Compound 58, a central pyridine isomer of BMS-986176/LX-9211 (4), was 4-fold more potent than 4 in vitro and showed lower plasma exposure needed to achieve similar efficacy compared to 4 in the CCI rat model. However, both 43 and 58 showed an inferior preclinical toxicity profile compared to 4.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)4534-4564
Number of pages31
JournalJournal of Medicinal Chemistry
Volume65
Issue number6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Mar 24 2022
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Molecular Medicine
  • Drug Discovery

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