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Steroid Sulfatase Inhibitors: Potential New Drugs for the Treatment of Acne and Cancer. Peter Nussbaumer Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research Vienna. Agenda. Introduction Steroid sulfatase pathway Potential indications for inhibitors Enzyme characteristics
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Steroid Sulfatase Inhibitors: Potential New Drugs for the Treatment of Acne and Cancer Peter NussbaumerNovartis Institutes for BioMedical Research Vienna
Agenda • Introduction • Steroid sulfatase pathway • Potential indications for inhibitors • Enzyme characteristics • Approaches to STS Inhibition (IC50, rIC50, KI) • Irreversible inhibitors and associated issues • Reversible inhibitors: discovery and optimisation • Clinical Proof of Concept
Production of Androgens and Estrogens in Peripheral Tissues post menopause tumor growth ER sebum production tumor growth AR
Potential Indications for STS Inhibitors • Androgen-dependent diseases:acne, androgenetic alopecia, hirsutism, cancer (prostate) • Estrogen-dependent diseases:cancer (breast, endometrium)
Steroid Sulfatase(STS, aryl sulfatase C, E.C. 3.1.6.2): • 65kDa membrane-bound (ER) protein • catalyzes hydrolysis of steroid sulfates (e.g., estrone, DHEA) • ca. 30 % homology to aryl sulfatase A and B (structures solved by X-ray), but different substrates • 3D structure only available since 2004 • over-expressed in breast tumours, acne lesions, dermal papilla • features unusual AA oxoalanine (posttranslational modification of cysteine) in the active site
Approaches to STS Inhibition • transition state analogues:not feasible because of trigonal-bipyramidal transition state • substrate analogues • active-site directed inhibition • irreversible inhibitors • novel types of inhibitors by rational designby HTScreening • structure-based design (X-ray, homology modeling) oxo-Ala essential for catalysis X-ray: sulfate is bound
3D Structure of Steroid Sulfatase active site membrane anchor Hernandez-Guzman, Higashiyama, Pangborn, Osawa, Ghosh: J. Biol. Chem. 2003, 278, 22989
Profiling of STS Inhibitors Primary Screen:IC50 on purified human STS All inhibitors: IC50 in CHO cells over-expressing STS Potential candidates:STS inhibition in: fibroblasts, keratinocytes, monocytes; human skin homogenate Specificity testing: arylsulfatase A and B; species selectivity; HaCaT cell proliferation Stability & solubility Penetration studies: pig and human skin Development candidate: In vivo testing in pig: STS inhibition Pharmacokinetic studies after topical application (skin and systemic levels)
Substrate-Based Inhibitors • non-cleavable substrate analogues • active site-directed inactivation IC50= 0.17 - 52 µM IC50= 75 µM Nussbaumer, Billich: Med. Res. Rev. 2004, 24 (4), 529
Active Site-Directed Inhibition • aryl sulfamates as irreversible inhibitors EMATE, IC50= 53 nM KI = 670 nM IC50> 100 µM Howarth, Purohit, Reed, Potter:J. Med. Chem. 1994, 37, 219 • other functional groups do not work, except: aryl formates IC50= 420 nM Schreiner, Billich: BMCL 2004, 14, 4999
EMATE as Lead Molecule Woo, Purohit, Reed, Potter: J. Med. Chem. 1996, 39, 1349 Woo, Purohit, Malini, Reed, Potter: Chem. Biol.2000, 7, 773 Li, Milano, Kluth, Rhodes: J. Steroid Biochem. Mol. Biol.1996, 59, 41
(Thio)Chromenone-Based Inhibitors Nussbaumer, Lehr, Billich: J. Med. Chem. 2002, 45, 4310
SAR for Non-Steroidal Aryl Sulfamates: Aryl sulfamate Linker Side chain no substitution allowed optional space aryl IC50 = 0.3 nM bulky aliphatic group linker should contain hetero atom,bicyclic ring structures preferred Nussbaumer, Billich: Med. Res. Rev.2004, 24 (4), 529
Inhibition of DHEAS Metabolism by STS Inhibitor Metabolism of DHEAS in human skin in vitro blue trace: no inhibitor added red trace: incubation in the presence of 10 nM inhibitor
Inhibition of STS: Problem Solved? Remaining issues: • Estrogenicity • EMATE has strong estrogenic activity in vivo • Aryl sulfamates are produgs of phenols • Phenols have to be considered as well • Clastogenic potential • Chemical instability
Estrogenicity Issue Solved! non-estrogenic arylsulfamates + phenols: 2-methoxy EMATE C17-subst. E2 sulfamates 667COUMATE Nussbaumer, Winiski, Billich: J. Med. Chem. 2003, 46, 5091
SAR for Estrogenicity of Chromenone Sulfamates Nussbaumer, Winiski, Billich: J. Med. Chem. 2003, 46, 5091
Inhibition of STS: Problem Solved? Remaining issues: • Estrogenicity • EMATE has strong estrogenic activity in vivo • Aryl sulfamates are produgs of phenols • Phenols have to be considered as well • Clastogenic potential • Chemical instability
Micronucleus Test Screen of Sulfamates Clastogenic Weakly clastogenic Clean VAC527
Synthesis & X-ray Structure of VAC527 Overall yield: 45% No chromatographic purification involved Schreiner, Billich: BMCL2003, 13, 4313
In Vivo Activity after Topical Application to Pigs inhibition of STS activity in skin at 6 hrs post treatment skin concentration of inhibitor Billich, Meingassner, Desrayaud, Nussbaumer, Lam, Schreiner: J. Steroid Biochem. Mol. Biol.2004, 92, 29
VAC527 Induces Atrophy of the Sebaceous Gland Minipig; topical treatment Dosage: 1% in isopropanol/propylene glycol 1:1 for 2 weeks Control animal (treated with placebo) Animal treated with VAC527 VAC527 was well tolerated and did not cause treatment-related histopathological findings in other organs.
Stability Profile of VAC527 • VAC527 was abandoned due to insufficient stability for standard topical development!
Inhibition of STS: Problem Solved? Remaining issues: • Estrogenicity • EMATE has strong estrogenic activity in vivo • Aryl sulfamates are produgs of phenols • Phenols have to be considered as well • Clastogenic potential • Chemical instability
Chemical (In)Stability of Aryl sulfamates • Aryl sulfamates are stable in the solid state • In solution aryl sulfamates are degraded to the corresponding phenols: T1/2= 24 hrs to 8 days at pH 7.5 / 37 °C • Limited stability in polar solvents, e.g. DMSO, PEG 400 • Susceptibility to hydrolysis is an inherent property of the aryl sulfamates • No correlation between chemical reactivity (hydrolysis) and enzyme inhibitory activity
Chemical Stability of Aryl Sulfamates Relative inhibitory activity of test compounds against STS vs. rate of hydrolysis
Search for Non-sulfamate Inhibitors“Rational approach“ → stable inhibitors lead Potent, stable, reversible STS inhibitor: purified STS: Ki = 0.5 µM ... but only poorly active in cells! Horvath et al.: J. Med. Chem. 2004, 47, 4268
Sulfonylureas as Reversible Inhibitors High-througput screening hit:
SAR of Sulfonylurea-Type Inhibitors IC50 = 0.9 µM IC50 [µM] 16.6 > 100 9 > 100 50 13 > 100 6.2 > 100 > 100 0.08 Caveat: in cellular system substantially less active Nussbaumer, Geyl, Horvath, Lehr, Wolff, Billich: BMCL2003, 13, 3673
From Sulfonylureas to Acylsulfonamides as Reversible STS Inhibitors
1000 500 starting point - 154 100 50 10 5 - 2.4 • lipophilic meta-substituentspreferred • acids with 1,4 orientation preferred Parallel Synthesis to Optimize the Aryl Moiety and to Evaluate 3 Central Scaffolds Ki = 16.1 µM rIC50 Ki = 0.22 µM Lehr, Billich, Wolff, Nussbaumer: BMCL2005, 15, 1235
Further Refinement of the Central ScaffoldIsonipecotic, 4-piperidinylacetic, 4-piperidinylenacetic acid-type R2 R1
Highly Potent, Reversible STS Inhibitors – ProfilesSelected compounds Superior in human Skin! VAC624
Synthesis of VAC624 Overall yield: 40%
Summary • Based on EMATE as lead, we discovered highly potent, non-estrogenic, irreversible STS blockers featuring a (thio)chromenone scaffold, but weak clastogenicity is an unacceptable safety risk • Benzoxazole-type inhibitors (VAC527) were found to be non-clastogenic and sufficiently potent in vivo, but the intrinsic instability of aryl sulfamates in topical formulations was a “no go” for further development • HTScreen delivered lead-like N-sulfonyl ureas as reversible inhibitors • Scaffold morphing and subsequent optimisation led to the discovery of a clinical candidate (VAC624) for the indication acne • While clinical PoC for the indication acne is still pending, PoC in breast cancerwas achieved with a prototype inhibitor
Clinical PoC of an STS Inhibitor in Breast CancerM. Reed et al: Clin. Cancer Res. 2006, 12, 1585 • PhI: STX64 (= 667COUMATE) • 9 (5mg) + 5 (20 mg) patients (postmenopausal women with BC) • Preliminary results: • well tolerated, only minor drug-related adverse effects • 98 % inhibition of STS in PBLs 99 % inhibition of STS in breast tumor tissue • significant reduction serum levels of estrone, estradiol, androstenediol, and DHEA • clinical evidence of stable disease in 4 subjects who previously progressed on aromatase inhibitor treatment
Acknowledgements Chemistry: A. Horvath, P. Lehr, P. Nussbaumer, E. Schreiner Biology: A. Billich, J. Meingassner, A. Winiski, B. Wolff-Winiski Modeling: A. Aszodi, A.Berces