Discovery of orally available and potent MPS1(TTK) kinase inhibitors for anti-cancer drugs

There are many cell cycle regulating kinases such as CDKs, Polo, Aurora, Bub, NEK/NimA, etc. Dual specificity protein kinase, MPS1(TTK) is one of them. The role of MPS1 is to regulate spindle assembly checkpoint(SAC) during cell mitosis. The inhibition of MPS1 activity causes cell death by premature mitotic exit. Some of MPS1 inhibitors (NMS-P153, BOS-172722, CFI-402257, BAY-1217389, and BAY-1161909) are in clinical trials. These compounds are treated for solid tumors with or without Paclitaxel. We discovered new orally available and potent inhibitors of MPS1 kinase (MPS1 enzyme IC50 30%). The compounds selectively inhibit MPS1 based on kinase profiling and decrease phosphorylation of MPS1 and Phospho-HH3 signaling, effectively. Some of compounds were selected for further preclinical studies. Citation Format: Younho Lee, Juhee Kang, Sein Kang, Hyunkyung Kim, Kyung-ah Seo, Jieun Choi, Jaeyoung Ahn, Jung Beom Son, Nam Doo Kim. Discovery of orally available and potent MPS1(TTK) kinase inhibitors for anti-cancer drugs [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2019; 2019 Mar 29-Apr 3; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 2211.