CNS-9, a Novel Specific Inhibitor of ABL Tyrosine Kinase Overcomes Resistance Mechanism of Imatinib.

Imatinib mesylate (also known as STI-571 and Gleevec) has drastically changed the treatment of Philadelphia chromosome positive (Ph⁺) leukemias. However, the resistance to imatinib has frequently been reported, particularly in patients with advanced-stage disease. A novel orally bioavailable inhibitor of the ABL tyrosine kinase (TK) named CNS-9 was developed from the 2-(phenylamino)pyrimidine class to overcome resistance mechanisms of imatinib. Inhibition of TK phosphorylation (IC₅₀) on wild type (wt) BCR/ABL in 293T cell line by CNS-9 was 22nM, which was 2-log more potent than imatinib. Importantly, CNS-9 inhibited TK phosphorylation of E255K mutant BCR/ABL with IC₅₀ of 98nM, while imatinib could not inhibit it with clinically relevant concentration. The T315I mutant BCR/ABL protein was resistant to CNS-9 and imatinib. CNS-9 also inhibited TK phosphorylation of platelet-derived growth factor receptor (PDGFR) or c-Kit pathways at the very similar observed IC₅₀s when compared with imatinib, in spite of significant higher potency against ABL. The ability of CNS-9 in vitro to inhibit 101 TK molecules was assayed by KinaseProfiler^TM (Upstate), showing also more specific inhibitory activity against ABL than imatinib. The growth of BCR/ABL-positive cell lines K562, KU812, BaF3 harboring wt BCR/ABL (BaF3/wt) and E255K (BaF3/E255K) was inhibited by CNS-9 with IC₅₀ of 5, 3, 17, and 110nM, respectively (Table 1). Generally, CNS-9 was 20 to 30-fold more potent on the growth inhibition than imatinib in these same cell lines. We next investigated the in vivo effect on the leukemic growth inhibition of CNS-9. Nude mice were injected subcutaneously with 3x10⁷ KU812 (wt BCR/ABL) on Day 0. CNS-9 or imatinib were orally administrated twice a day from Day 7 to Day 18. The dosages of CNS-9 and imatinib, which inhibited completely tumor growth were 20mg/kg/day and 200mg/kg/day, respectively, indicating that CNS-9 is 10-fold potent than imatinib in vivo. To examine the in vivo effect of CNS-9 against mutant BCR/ABL, BaF3/wt, BaF3/E255K or BaF3/T315I were engrafted to nude mice and treated with CNS-9 or imatinib. CNS-9 was also 10-fold potent than imatinib against BaF3/wt. Intriguingly, mice harboring BaF3/wt or BaF3/E255K showed significantly prolonged survival when treated with CNS-9. Consistent with in vitro assay, CNS-9 had no effect on T315I, and imatinib was not effective against both E255K and T315I. In conclusion, CNS-9 is substantially more inhibitory and more specifically than imatinib toward BCR/ABL-dependent cell growth both in vitro and in vivo Moreover, CNS-9 may be effective for leukemia patients whose leukemic cells harbor E255K mutant. The efficacy and safety of CNS-9 for Ph⁺ leukemias should be verified in early phase clinical trials.

The IC₅₀s values of leukemic cell lines for CNS-9 and imatinib