2. Academic Validation
  3. Discovery of highly potent, selective, and brain-penetrant aminopyrazole leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2) small molecule inhibitors

Discovery of highly potent, selective, and brain-penetrant aminopyrazole leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2) small molecule inhibitors

  • J Med Chem. 2014 Feb 13;57(3):921-36. doi: 10.1021/jm401654j.
Anthony A Estrada 1,  Bryan K Chan,  Charles Baker-Glenn,  Alan Beresford,  Daniel J Burdick,  Mark Chambers,  Huifen Chen,  Sara L Dominguez,  Jennafer Dotson,  Jason Drummond,  Michael Flagella,  Reina Fuji,  Andrew Gill,  Jason Halladay,  Seth F Harris,  Timothy P Heffron,  Tracy Kleinheinz,  Donna W Lee,  Claire E Le Pichon,  Xingrong Liu,  Joseph P Lyssikatos,  Andrew D Medhurst,  John G Moffat,  Kevin Nash,  Kimberly Scearce-Levie,  Zejuan Sheng,  Daniel G Shore,  Susan Wong,  Shuo Zhang,  Xiaolin Zhang,  Haitao Zhu,  Zachary K Sweeney
Affiliations

Affiliation

  • 1 Departments of †Discovery Chemistry, ‡Neurosciences, §Biochemical and Cellular Pharmacology, ∥Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics, ⊥Safety Assessment, and #Structural Biology, Genentech, Inc. , 1 DNA Way, South San Francisco, California 94080, United States.
PMID: 24354345 DOI: 10.1021/jm401654j
Abstract

Leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2) has drawn significant interest in the neuroscience research community because it is one of the most compelling targets for a potential disease-modifying Parkinson's disease therapy. Herein, we disclose structurally diverse small molecule inhibitors suitable for assessing the implications of sustained in vivo LRRK2 inhibition. Using previously reported aminopyrazole 2 as a lead molecule, we were able to engineer structural modifications in the solvent-exposed region of the ATP-binding site that significantly improve human hepatocyte stability, rat free brain exposure, and CYP inhibition and induction liabilities. Disciplined application of established optimal CNS design parameters culminated in the rapid identification of GNE-0877 (11) and GNE-9605 (20) as highly potent and selective LRRK2 inhibitors. The demonstrated metabolic stability, brain penetration across multiple species, and selectivity of these inhibitors support their use in preclinical efficacy and safety studies.

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