Discovery and Characterization of Selective, First-in-Class Inhibitors of Citron Kinase.

Journal of medicinal chemistry
Authors
Abstract

Citron kinase (CITK) is an AGC-family serine/threonine kinase that regulates cytokinesis. Despite knockdown experiments implicating CITK as an anticancer target, no selective CITK inhibitors exist. We transformed a previously reported kinase inhibitor with weak off-target CITK activity into a first-in-class CITK chemical probe, . is a Type I kinase inhibitor which potently inhibits CITK catalytic activity (biochemical IC = 12 nM), binds directly to full-length human CITK in cells (NanoBRET < 10 nM), and demonstrates favorable DMPK properties for in vivo evaluation. We engineered exquisite selectivity for CITK (>17-fold versus 373 other human kinases), making the first chemical probe suitable for interrogating the complex biology of CITK. Our small-molecule CITK inhibitors could not phenocopy the effects of CITK knockdown in cell proliferation, cell cycle progression, or cytokinesis assays, providing preliminary evidence that the structural roles of CITK may be more important than its kinase activity.

Year of Publication
2024
Journal
Journal of medicinal chemistry
Date Published
02/2024
ISSN
1520-4804
DOI
10.1021/acs.jmedchem.3c01807
PubMed ID
38330278
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