Novel, Potent and Selective JAK2 Inhibitors.

Abstract 3777

Poster Board III-713

The recent discovery of an acquired activating point mutation in JAK2, substituting valine at amino acid position 617 for phenylalanine, has greatly improved our understanding of the molecular mechanism underlying chronic myeloproliferative neoplasms. Strikingly, the JAK2^V617F mutation is found in nearly all patients suffering from polycythemia vera and in roughly every second patient suffering from essential thrombocythemia and from primary myelofibrosis. Thus, JAK2 represents a promising target for the treatment of myeloproliferative disorders and considerable efforts are ongoing to discover and develop inhibitors of the kinase. Here, we report potent inhibition of JAK2^V617F and JAK2 wild type enzymes by novel small molecule inhibitors, which act in an ATP-competitive manner. The profile of a lead compound from this class will be presented that displays more than twenty-fold selectivity towards JAK2 within the JAK family, as well as excellent selectivity in broader kinase profiling. The compound blunts constitutive STAT5 phosphorylation in JAK2^V617F-bearing cells, with concomitant suppression of cell proliferation and induction of apoptosis. In vivo, the inhibitor exhibited good oral bioavailability and is efficacious in suppressing leukemic cell spreading and splenomegaly in a Ba/F3 JAK2^V617F cell-driven mouse mechanistic model as well as polycythemia and extramedullary erythropoiesis in mouse and rat models.