Discovery of novel biaryl sulfonamide based Mcl-1 inhibitors.
Follows, B., Fessler, S., Baumeister, T., Campbell, A.M., Zablocki, M.M., Li, H., Gotur, D., Wang, Z., Zheng, X., Molz, L., Nguyen, C., Herbertz, T., Wang, L., Bair, K.(2019) Bioorg Med Chem Lett 29: 2375-2382
- PubMed: 31235261 
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bmcl.2019.06.008
- Primary Citation of Related Structures:  
6P3P - PubMed Abstract: 
Mcl-1 is an anti-apoptotic protein overexpressed in hematological malignancies and several human solid tumors. Small molecule inhibition of Mcl-1 would offer an effective therapy to Mcl-1 mediated resistance. Subsequently, it has been the target of extensive research in the pharmaceutical industry. The discovery of a novel class of Mcl-1 small molecule inhibitors is described beginning with a simple biaryl sulfonamide hit derived from a high through put screen. A medicinal chemistry effort aided by SBDD generated compounds capable of disrupting the Mcl-1/Bid protein-protein interaction in vitro. The crystal structure of the Mcl-1 bound ligand represents a unique binding mode to the BH3 binding pocket where binding affinity is achieved, in part, through a sulfonamide oxygen/Arg263 interaction. The work highlights the some of the key challenges in designing effective protein-protein inhibitors for the Bcl-2 class of proteins.
Organizational Affiliation: 
FORMA Therapeutics, 500 Arsenal Street, Suite 100, Watertown, MA 02472, USA. Electronic address: bruce.follows@emdserono.com.