HER2 Kinase-Targeted Breast Cancer Therapy: Design, Synthesis, and In Vitro and In Vivo Evaluation of Novel Lapatinib Congeners as Selective and Potent HER2 Inhibitors with Favorable Metabolic Stability

J Med Chem. 2020 Dec 24;63(24):15906-15945. doi: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.0c01647. Epub 2020 Dec 14.

Abstract

HER2 kinase as a well-established target for breast cancer (BC) therapy is associated with aggressive clinical outcomes; thus, herein we present structural optimization for HER2-selective targeting. HER2 profiling of the developed derivatives demonstrated potent and selective inhibitions (IC50: 5.4-12 nM) compared to lapatinib (IC50: 95.5 nM). Favorably, 17d exhibited minimum off-target kinase activation. NCI-5-dose screening revealed broad-spectrum activities (GI50: 1.43-2.09 μM) and 17d had a remarkable selectivity toward BC. Our compounds revealed significant selective and potent antiproliferative activities (∼20-fold) against HER2+ (AU565, BT474) compared to HER2(-) cells. At 0.1 IC50, 15i, 17d, and 25b inhibited pERK1/2 and pAkt by immunoblotting. Furthermore, 17d demonstrated potent in vivo tumor regression against the BT474 xenograft model. Notably, a metastasis case was observed in the vehicle but not in the test mice groups. CD-1 mice metabolic stability assay revealed high stability and low intrinsic clearance of 17d (T1/2 > 145 min and CLint(mic) < 9.6 mL/min/kg).

Publication types

  • Evaluation Study
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Antineoplastic Agents / chemical synthesis*
  • Antineoplastic Agents / pharmacology*
  • Apoptosis
  • Breast Neoplasms / drug therapy*
  • Breast Neoplasms / metabolism
  • Breast Neoplasms / pathology
  • Cell Proliferation
  • Drug Design*
  • Female
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic
  • Humans
  • In Vitro Techniques
  • Lapatinib / chemistry*
  • Mice
  • Mice, Nude
  • Molecular Targeted Therapy*
  • Quinazolines / chemical synthesis*
  • Quinazolines / pharmacology*
  • Receptor, ErbB-2 / antagonists & inhibitors*
  • Receptor, ErbB-2 / metabolism
  • Signal Transduction
  • Tumor Cells, Cultured
  • Xenograft Model Antitumor Assays

Substances

  • Antineoplastic Agents
  • Quinazolines
  • Lapatinib
  • ERBB2 protein, human
  • Receptor, ErbB-2