State Key Laboratory of Natural Medicines, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing 210009, China.
Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Drug Design and Optimization, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing 210009, China.
Molecules. 2021 Jun 2;26(11):3347. doi: 10.3390/molecules26113347.
Blockade of the programmed cell death 1 (PD-1)/programmed cell death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) interaction is currently the focus in the field of cancer immunotherapy, and so far, several monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) have achieved encouraging outcomes in cancer treatment. Despite this achievement, mAbs-based therapies are struggling with limitations including poor tissue and tumor penetration, long half-life time, poor oral bioavailability, and expensive production costs, which prompted a shift towards the development of the small-molecule inhibitors of PD-1/PD-L1 pathways. Even though many small-molecule inhibitors targeting PD-1/PD-L1 interaction have been reported, their development lags behind the corresponding mAb, partly due to the challenges of developing drug-like small molecules. Herein, we report the discovery of a series of novel inhibitors targeting PD-1/PD-L1 interaction via structural simplification strategy by using BMS-1058 as a starting point. Among them, compound stands out as the most promising candidate with excellent PD-L1 inhibitory activity (IC = 0.93 nM, LE = 0.43) and high binding affinity to hPD-L1 ( = 3.64 nM, LE = 0.40). Furthermore, can significantly promote the production of IFN-γ in a dose-dependent manner by rescuing PD-L1 mediated T-cell inhibition in Hep3B/OS-8/hPD-L1 and CD3-positive T cells co-culture assay. Taken together, these results suggest that is a promising inhibitor of PD-1/PD-L1 interaction and is worthy for further study.
阻断程序性细胞死亡 1(PD-1)/程序性细胞死亡配体 1(PD-L1)的相互作用是目前癌症免疫治疗领域的重点,到目前为止,几种单克隆抗体(mAbs)在癌症治疗中取得了令人鼓舞的效果。尽管取得了这一成就,但 mAbs 为基础的治疗方法仍存在一些局限性,包括组织和肿瘤穿透性差、半衰期长、口服生物利用度差和生产成本高,这促使人们转向开发 PD-1/PD-L1 途径的小分子抑制剂。尽管已经报道了许多针对 PD-1/PD-L1 相互作用的小分子抑制剂,但它们的开发落后于相应的 mAb,部分原因是开发类药小分子存在挑战。在此,我们报道了通过使用 BMS-1058 作为起始点,通过结构简化策略发现了一系列针对 PD-1/PD-L1 相互作用的新型抑制剂。其中,化合物 表现出作为最有前途的候选物,具有优异的 PD-L1 抑制活性(IC = 0.93 nM,LE = 0.43)和对 hPD-L1 的高结合亲和力( = 3.64 nM,LE = 0.40)。此外,通过挽救 Hep3B/OS-8/hPD-L1 和 CD3 阳性 T 细胞共培养测定中 PD-L1 介导的 T 细胞抑制作用,以剂量依赖性方式显著促进 IFN-γ的产生。总之,这些结果表明 是 PD-1/PD-L1 相互作用的一种有前途的抑制剂,值得进一步研究。