Journal of medicinal chemistry
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NaV1.7 is a voltage-gated sodium ion channel implicated by human genetic evidence as a therapeutic target for the treatment of pain. Screening fractionated venom from the tarantula Grammostola porteri led to the identification of a 34-residue peptide, termed GpTx-1, with potent activity on NaV1.7 (IC50 = 10 nM) and promising selectivity against key NaV subtypes (20× and 1000× over NaV1.4 and NaV1.5, respectively). ⋯ Substitution of Ala for Phe at position 5 conferred 300-fold selectivity against NaV1.4. A structure-guided campaign afforded additive improvements in potency and NaV subtype selectivity, culminating in the design of [Ala5,Phe6,Leu26,Arg28]GpTx-1 with a NaV1.7 IC50 value of 1.6 nM and >1000× selectivity against NaV1.4 and NaV1.5.
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Currently available cyanide antidotes must be given by intravenous injection over 5-10 min, making them ill-suited for treating many people in the field, as could occur in a major fire, an industrial accident, or a terrorist attack. These scenarios call for a drug that can be given quickly, e.g., by intramuscular injection. ⋯ Here we show that adding sodium nitrite to cobinamide yields a stable derivative (referred to as nitrocobinamide) that rescues cyanide-poisoned mice and rabbits when given by intramuscular injection. We also show that the efficacy of nitrocobinamide is markedly enhanced by coadministering sodium thiosulfate (reducing the total injected volume), and we calculate that ∼1.4 mL each of nitrocobinamide and sodium thiosulfate should rescue a human from a lethal cyanide exposure.
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Nintedanib (BIBF1120) is a potent, oral, small-molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitor, also known as a triple angiokinase inhibitor, inhibiting three major signaling pathways involved in angiogenesis. Nintedanib targets proangiogenic and pro-fibrotic pathways mediated by the VEGFR family, the fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR) family, the platelet-derived growth factor receptor (PDGFR) family, as well as Src and Flt-3 kinases. ⋯ Recent clinical evidence from phase III studies has shown that nintedanib has significant efficacy in the treatment of NSCLC, ovarian cancer, and IPF. This review article provides a comprehensive summary of the preclinical and clinical research and development of nintedanib from the initial drug discovery process to the latest available clinical trial data.
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We developed a pharmacophore model for type II inhibitors that was used to guide the construction of a library of kinase inhibitors. Kinome-wide selectivity profiling of the library resulted in the identification of a series of 4-substituted 1H-pyrrolo[2,3-b]pyridines that exhibited potent inhibitory activity against two mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs), TAK1 (MAP3K7) and MAP4K2, as well as pharmacologically well interrogated kinases such as p38α (MAPK14) and ABL. ⋯ Some of these inhibitors possess good pharmacokinetic properties that will enable their use in pharmacological studies in vivo. A 2.4 Å cocrystal structure of TAK1 in complex with 1 confirms that the activation loop of TAK1 assumes the DFG-out conformation characteristic of type II inhibitors.