- Muthengi, Alex;
- Wimalasena, Virangika K;
- Yosief, Hailemichael O;
- Bikowitz, Melissa J;
- Sigua, Logan H;
- Wang, Tingjian;
- Li, Deyao;
- Gaieb, Zied;
- Dhawan, Gagan;
- Liu, Shuai;
- Erickson, Jon;
- Amaro, Rommie E;
- Schönbrunn, Ernst;
- Qi, Jun;
- Zhang, Wei
The use of epigenetic bromodomain inhibitors as anticancer therapeutics has transitioned from targeting bromodomain extraterminal domain (BET) proteins into targeting non-BET bromodomains. The two most relevant non-BET bromodomain oncology targets are cyclic AMP response element-binding protein (CBP) and E1A binding protein P300 (EP300). To explore the growing CBP/EP300 interest, we developed a highly efficient two-step synthetic route for dimethylisoxazole-attached imidazo[1,2-a]pyridine scaffold-containing inhibitors. Our efficient two-step reactions enabled high-throughput synthesis of compounds designed by molecular modeling, which together with structure-activity relationship (SAR) studies facilitated an overarching understanding of selective targeting of CBP/EP300 over non-BET bromodomains. This led to the identification of a new potent and selective CBP/EP300 bromodomain inhibitor, UMB298 (compound 23, CBP IC50 72 nM and bromodomain 4, BRD4 IC50 5193 nM). The SAR we established is in good agreement with literature-reported CBP inhibitors, such as CBP30, and demonstrates the advantage of utilizing our two-step approach for inhibitor development of other bromodomains.