Synthesis and Biological Validation of a Harmine-Based, Central Nervous System (CNS)-Avoidant, Selective, Human beta-Cell Regenerative Dual-Specificity Tyrosine Phosphorylation-Regulated Kinase A (DYRK1A) Inhibitor.
Kumar, K., Wang, P., Wilson, J., Zlatanic, V., Berrouet, C., Khamrui, S., Secor, C., Swartz, E.A., Lazarus, M., Sanchez, R., Stewart, A.F., Garcia-Ocana, A., DeVita, R.J.(2020) J Med Chem 63: 2986-3003
- PubMed: 32003560 
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jmedchem.9b01379
- Primary Citation of Related Structures:  
6UWY - PubMed Abstract: 
Recently, our group identified that harmine is able to induce β-cell proliferation both in vitro and in vivo, mediated via the DYRK1A-NFAT pathway. Since, harmine suffers from a lack of selectivity, both against other kinases and CNS off-targets, we therefore sought to expand structure-activity relationships for harmine's DYRK1A activity, to enhance selectivity for off-targets while retaining human β-cell proliferation activity. We carried out optimization of the 9- N -position of harmine to synthesize 29 harmine-based analogs. Several novel inhibitors showed excellent DYRK1A inhibition and human β-cell proliferation capability. An optimized DYRK1A inhibitor, 2-2c , was identified as a novel, efficacious in vivo lead candidate. 2-2c also demonstrates improved selectivity for kinases and CNS off-targets, as well as in vivo efficacy for β-cell proliferation and regeneration at lower doses than harmine. Collectively, these findings demonstrate that 2-2c is a much improved in vivo lead candidate as compared to harmine for the treatment of diabetes.
Organizational Affiliation: 
Drug Discovery Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York 10029, United States.