Martin Drysdale

• Cancer Research UK Scotland Institute

Activating mutations of Ras are one of the most prevalent drivers of cancer and are often associated with poor clinical outcomes. Despite FDA approval for two irreversible inhibitors that target the inactive state of KRasG12C, significant unmet clinical need still exists, and the susceptibility of non-G12C mutants to inactive-state inhibition remai...

Activating mutations of Ras are one of the most prevalent drivers of cancer and are often associated with poor clinical outcomes. Despite FDA approval for two irreversible inhibitors that target the inactive state of KRasG12C, significant unmet clinical need still exists, and the susceptibility of non-G12C mutants to inactive-state inhibition remai...

Glioblastoma (GBM) is one of the most common and aggressive forms of brain cancer. It is associated with poor survival rates, in part due to the infiltrative nature of GBM tumour cells. This allows GBM cells to disseminate through the brain via existing white matter tracts and perivascular spaces making complete surgical resection unachievable and...

The myotonic dystrophy–related Cdc42-binding kinases MRCKα and MRCKβ contribute to the regulation of actin–myosin cytoskeleton organization and dynamics, acting in concert with the Rho-associated coiled-coil kinases ROCK1 and ROCK2. The absence of highly potent and selective MRCK inhibitors has resulted in relatively little knowledge of the potenti...

The actin-bundling protein fascin 1 is markedly overexpressed in a range of invasive tumors and is believed to play a critical role in cancer cell metastasis. Targeting fascin is however very challenging owing to its mechanism of protein-protein interaction and a lack of knowledge regarding the crucial actin-binding sites. By combining a fragment-b...

Small GTPases regulate many key cellular processes and their role in human disease validates many proteins in this class as desirable targets for therapeutic intervention. Reliable recombinant production of GTPases, often in the active GTP loaded state, is a prerequisite for the prosecution of drug discovery efforts. The preparation of these active...

Many fragment libraries are chemically diverse and have been selected based on a good balance of properties. However, they all tend to have limited three-dimensional diversity. While significant effort has been expended in improving the profiles of HTS libraries, relatively little has been published concerning the introduction of three-dimensionali...

s: AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference: Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics; November 5-9, 2015; Boston, MA Fascin 1 is an actin-bundling protein that is dramatically overexpressed in a variety of invasive tumors and thought to have a critical role in cancer cell metastasis. However, as a drug target it is highly challenging due to its m...

Cellular senescence is a barrier to tumorigenesis in normal cells, and tumor cells undergo senescence responses to genotoxic stimuli, which is a potential target phenotype for cancer therapy. However, in this setting, mixed-mode responses are common with apoptosis the dominant effect. Hence, more selective senescence inducers are required. Here we...

Chk1 kinase is a critical component of the DNA damage response checkpoint especially in cancer cells and targeting Chk1 is a potential therapeutic opportunity for potentiating the anti-tumor activity of DNA damaging chemotherapy drugs. Fragment elaboration by structure guided design was utilized to identify and develop a novel series of Chk1 inhibi...

Compounds of formula (I) have checkpoint kinase 1 (CHK1) inhibitory activity: wherein R1, R2, R5 and R6 are independently selected from hydrogen, hydroxy, methyl, trifluoromethyl, hydroxymethyl, methoxy, trifluoromethoxy, methylamino and dimethylamino; R3, and R4 are independently selected from hydrogen, hydroxy, C1-C3 alkyl, fluoro-(C1-C3)-alkyl,...

Background: The myotonic dystrophy kinase-related CDC42-binding kinases MRCKα and MRCKβ regulate actin-myosin contractility and have been implicated in cancer metastasis. Along with the related ROCK1 and ROCK2 kinases, the MRCK proteins initiate signalling events that lead to contractile force generation which powers cancer cell motility and invas...

Fragment-Based Drug Discovery (FBDD) is here to stay. Validated as a technology with the delivery of Zelboraf (Vemurafenib) for the treatment of mutant B-Raf(V600E) melanoma, it has become embedded within the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. FBDD has delivered clinical development candidates for a broad range of targets including some o...

Fragment-Based Drug Discovery (FBDD) is here to stay. Validated as a technology with the delivery of Zelboraf (Vemurafenib) for the treatment of mutant B-RafV600E melanoma, it has become embedded within the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. FBDD has delivered clinical development candidates for a broad range of targets including some of...

Inhibitors of the Hsp90 molecular chaperone are showing promise as anti-cancer agents. Here we describe a series of 4-aryl-5-cyanopyrrolo[2,3-d]pyrimidine ATP competitive Hsp90 inhibitors that were identified following structure-driven optimization of purine hits revealed by NMR based screening of a proprietary fragment library. Ligand-Hsp90 X-ray...

78 kDa glucose-regulated protein (Grp78) is a heat shock protein (HSP) involved in protein folding that plays a role in cancer cell proliferation. Binding of adenosine-derived inhibitors to Grp78 was characterized by surface plasmon resonance and isothermal titration calorimetry. The most potent compounds were 13 (VER-155008) with K(D) = 80 nM and...

Heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90) is a ubiquitously expressed molecular chaperone with ATPase activity involved in the conformational maturation and stability of key signaling molecules involved in cell proliferation, survival, and transformation. Through its ability to modulate multiple pathways involved in oncogenesis, Hsp90 has generated considerabl...

s: AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference: Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics--Nov 15-19, 2009; Boston, MA The role of the 70 kDa heat shock protein isoforms (Hsc70 and Hsp70) in cancer development and progression through their ability to inhibit apoptosis and via their role as Hsp90 co‐chaperones has been well documented. Dual targeting o...

s: AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference: Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics--Nov 15-19, 2009; Boston, MA Conventional chemotherapeutic agents such as gemcitabine, cisplatin or irinotecan induce DNA damage and activate cell cycle checkpoints. P53 defective tumors lack a functional G1 checkpoint and rely heavily on the S and G2 checkpoints...

The anti-apoptotic function of the 70 kDa family of heat shock proteins and their role in cancer is well documented. Dual targeting of Hsc70 and Hsp70 with siRNA induces proteasome-dependent degradation of Hsp90 client proteins and extensive tumor specific apoptosis as well as the potentiation of tumor cell apoptosis following pharmacological Hsp90...

Inhibitors of the Hsp90 molecular chaperone are showing considerable promise as potential molecular therapeutic agents for the treatment of cancer. Here we describe novel 2-aminothieno[2,3-d]pyrimidine ATP competitive Hsp90 inhibitors, which were designed by combining structural elements of distinct low affinity hits generated from fragment-based a...

The design and synthesis of novel adenosine-derived inhibitors of HSP70, guided by modeling and X-ray crystallographic structures of these compounds in complex with HSC70/BAG-1, is described. Examples exhibited submicromolar affinity for HSP70, were highly selective over HSP90, and some displayed potency against HCT116 cells. Exposure of compound 1...

We describe the biological properties of NVP-AUY922, a novel resorcinylic isoxazole amide heat shock protein 90 (HSP90) inhibitor. NVP-AUY922 potently inhibits HSP90 (K(d) = 1.7 nmol/L) and proliferation of human tumor cells with GI(50) values of approximately 2 to 40 nmol/L, inducing G(1)-G(2) arrest and apoptosis. Activity is independent of NQO1/...

Heat shock protein (Hsp90) inhibitors are an increasingly interesting and important class of compounds where the first in class, natural product derived inhibitors such as 17-allylaminogeldanamycin (17-AAG), are entering late stage clinical development. Recently the emergence of synthetic, small molecule inhibitors has been described and both NVP-A...

Heat shock protein 90 (HSP90) is a key component of a multichaperone complex involved in the post-translational folding of a large number of client proteins, many of which play essential roles in tumorigenesis. HSP90 has emerged in recent years as a promising new target for anticancer therapies. The concentrations of the HSP90 inhibitor NVP-AUY922...

Inhibitors of the Hsp90 molecular chaperone are showing considerable promise as potential chemotherapeutic agents for cancer. Here, we describe the structure-based design, synthesis, structure-activity relationships and pharmacokinetics of potent small-molecule inhibitors of Hsp90 based on the 4,5-diarylisoxazole scaffold. Analogues from this serie...

Virtual screening against a pCDK2/cyclin A crystal structure led to the identification of a potent and novel CDK2 inhibitor, which exhibited an unusual mode of interaction with the kinase binding motif. With the aid of X-ray crystallography and modelling, a medicinal chemistry strategy was implemented to probe the interactions seen in the crystal s...

Although the heat shock protein 90 (HSP90) inhibitor 17-allylamino-17-demethoxygeldanamycin (17-AAG) shows clinical promise, potential limitations encourage development of alternative chemotypes. We discovered the 3,4-diarylpyrazole resorcinol CCT018159 by high-throughput screening and used structure-based design to generate more potent pyrazole am...

Finding novel compounds as starting points for optimization is a major challenge in drug discovery research. Fragment-based methods have emerged in the past ten years as an effective way to sample chemical diversity with a limited number of low molecular weight compounds. The structures of the fragments(s) binding to the protein can then be used to...

Heat shock protein (Hsp)90 is a molecular chaperone that is responsible for the correct folding of a large number of proteins, which allows these proteins to achieve their functional conformation. Client proteins of Hsp90 include many overexpressed or mutated oncogenes that are known to be critical for the transformed phenotype observed in tumors....

CCT018159 was recently identified as a novel inhibitor of heat shock protein (Hsp) 90, a promising target for cancer therapy. Pharmacokinetic and metabolic properties are likely to be important for efficacy and need to be optimized during drug development. Here, we define the preclinical metabolism and pharmacokinetics of CCT018159 and some early d...

Novel piperazinyl, morpholino and piperidyl derivatives of the pyrazole-based Hsp90 inhibitor CCT018159 are described. Structure-activity relationships have been elucidated by X-ray co-crystal analysis of the new compounds bound to the N-terminal domain of human Hsp90. Key features of the binding mode are essentially identical to the recently repor...

Hsp90 encodes a ubiquitous molecular chaperone protein conserved among species which acts on multiple substrates, many of which are important cell-signaling proteins. Inhibition of Hsp90 function has been promoted as a mechanism to degrade client proteins involved in tumorigenesis and disease progression. Several assays to monitor inhibition of Hsp...

Information from X-ray crystal structures of Hsp90 inhibitors bound to the human Hsp90 molecular chaperone was used to assist in the design of 3-(5-chloro-2,4-dihydroxyphenyl)-pyrazole-4-carboxamides as novel inhibitors of Hsp90. Accessing an extra interaction with the protein via Phe138 gave a significant increase in binding potency compared to si...

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This review explains why the chaperone Hsp90 is an exciting protein target for the discovery of new drugs to treat cancer in the clinic, and summarises the properties of natural product derived inhibitors before relating the discovery and current state of development of synthetic pyrazole compounds. Blockade of Hsp90 results in reduced cellular lev...

Docking-based virtual screening identified 1-(2-phenol)-2-naphthol compounds as a new class of Hsp90 inhibitors of low to sub-micromolar potency. Here we report the binding affinities and cellular activities of several members of this class. A high resolution crystal structure of the most potent compound reveals its binding mode in the ATP binding...

The crystal structure of a previously reported screening hit 1 (CCT018159) bound to the N terminal domain of molecular chaperone Hsp90 has been used to design 5-amide analogues. These exhibit enhanced potency against the target in binding and functional assays with accompanying appropriate cellular pharmacodynamic changes. Compound 11 (VER-49009) c...

Molecular chaperones are proteins that ensure the appropriate folding, stability and function of other proteins in the cell. There is increasing evidence that molecular chaperones are not only important in normal cell homeostasis and response to stresses, such as heat shock, but can also be involved in disease pathology. In particular, HSP90 has em...

We have designed four generations of a low molecular weight fragment library for use in NMR-based screening against protein targets. The library initially contained 723 fragments which were selected manually from the Available Chemicals Directory. A series of in silico filters and property calculations were developed to automate the selection proce...

Inhibition of the ATPase activity of the chaperone protein HSP90 is a potential strategy for treatment of cancers. We have determined structures of the HSP90alpha N-terminal domain complexed with the purine-based inhibitor, PU3, and analogs with enhanced potency both in enzyme and cell-based assays. The compounds induce upregulation of HSP70 and do...

The targeting of RNA for the design of novel anti-viral compounds has until now proceeded largely without incorporating direct input from structure-based design methodology, partly because of lack of structural data, and complications arising from substrate flexibility. We propose a paradigm to explain the physical mechanism for ligand-induced refo...

The targeting of RNA for the design of novel anti-viral compounds represents an area of vast potential. We have used NMR and computational methods to model the interaction of a series of synthetic inhibitors of the in vitro RNA binding activities of a peptide derived from the transcriptional activator protein, Tat, from human immunodeficiency virus...

Multiple co-crystal structures of an adenine-based series of inhibitors bound to the molecular chaperone Hsp90 have been determined. These structures explain the observed SAR for previously described compounds and new compounds, which possess up to 8-fold improved potency against the isolated enzyme. Anti-tumour cell potency and mechanism of action...

Rational structure-based drug design has been applied to the antibiotic thiostrepton, in an attempt to overcome some of its' limitations. The identification of a proposed binding fragment allowed construction of a number of key fragments, which were derivatised to generate a library of potential antibiotics. These were then evaluated to determine t...

In the antiviral and antibacterial area, increasing drug resistance means that there is an ever growing need for novel approaches towards structures and mechanisms which avoid the current problems. The huge increase in high resolution structural data is set to make a dramatic impact on targeting RNA as a drug target. The examples of the RNA binding...