Discovery of 1-Amino-1<i>H</i>-imidazole-5-carboxamide Derivatives as Highly Selective, Covalent Bruton’s Tyrosine Kinase (BTK) Inhibitors
Chunhua Ma, Qing Yun Li, Minghao Zhao, Goujie Fan, Jie Zhao, Dandan Zhang, Shouning Yang, Shuting Zhang, Dingding Gao, Longfei Mao, Liang Zhu, Wei Li, Guiqing Xu, Yuqin Jiang, Qingjie Ding
Abstract
Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitors suppressing the aberrant activation of BTK have led to a paradigm shift in the therapy of B-cell malignancies. However, there is an urgent need to discover more selective covalent BTK inhibitors owing to the off-target adverse effects of the approved inhibitor, ibrutinib. Herein, we disclose the discovery and preliminary activity studies of novel BTK inhibitors carrying 1-amino-1H-imidazole-5-carboxamide as a hinge binder. The most potent BTK inhibitor 26 demonstrates impressive selectivity, favorable pharmacokinetic properties, and robust antitumor efficacy in vivo, which indicates its potential as a novel therapeutic option for B-cell lymphomas. Importantly, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first example of a 1-amino-1H-imidazole-5-carboxamide scaffold used as the hinge binder of kinase inhibitors, which will largely expand the chemical diversity of kinase inhibitors.