Nils Pemberton, Nina Compagne, Argyrides Argyrou, Emma Evertsson, Anders Gunnarsson, Jason G. Kettle, Jonathan P. Orme, and Richard A. Ward
ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters 2024
DOI: 10.1021/acsmedchemlett.3c00425
To further facilitate the discovery of cysteine reactive covalent inhibitors, there is a need to develop new reactive groups beyond the traditional acrylamide-type warheads. Herein we describe the design and synthesis of covalent EGFR inhibitors that use vinylpyridine as the reactive group. Structure-based design identified the quinazoline-containing vinylpyridine 6 as a starting point. Further modifications focused on reducing reactivity resulted in substituted vinyl compound 12, which shows high EGFR potency and good kinase selectivity, as well as significantly reduced reactivity compared to the starting compound 6, confirming that vinylpyridines can be applied as an alternative cysteine reactive warhead with tunable reactivity.
