Structural and Biochemical Studies Confirming the Mechanism of Action of Asciminib, an Agent Specifically Targeting the ABL Myristoyl Pocket (STAMP)

Tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) that inhibit the transphosphorylation activity of the BCR-ABL1 oncoprotein by binding the ATP-binding site of the catalytic domain of protein kinases are well established as being effective drugs for the treatments of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). However, the off-target kinase activities of these non-specific TKIs are associated with adverse events that can limit their suitability for the treatment of patients and can negatively impact quality of life. Therefore, a new drug combining high efficacy with minimal side-effects could provide substantial therapeutic advantages.

Asciminib is a new investigational agent that at concentrations <10 micromolar has very little effect (residual activities ≥66%) on the transphosphorylation activity of a large panel comprising of 335wild-typeprotein kinases (including ABL1 and ABL2). In this study (³³PanQinase® Activity Assay, ProQinase GmbH, Freiburg, Germany) the radiometric kinase assay employed recombinant kinase constructs of the catalytic domains including the ATP-binding site.

However, in isothermal calorimetry studies asciminib showed strong binding affinity (K_D 0.5 nM) to a much larger construct ofwild-typeABL1 that contains the catalytic, SH2 and SH3 domains (residues 46-534, ABL^46-534), with thermodynamic parameters (ΔH = -72.8 kJ/mol, ΔS = -65.3 J/mol/K, resulting in ΔG = -53.2 kJ/mol) indicating strong enthalpy-driven, entropically unfavorable binding. This binding translates to inhibition of tyrosine phosphorylation catalysed by the ABL^64-515 construct with a mean IC₅₀ value of 2.6 ± 0.8 nM (radiometric filter binding assay) and 0.5 ± 0.1 nM (fluorescence resonance energy transfer assay). This data shows that asciminib inhibits the kinase activity of ABL1 by an allosteric mechanism which does not involve direct interaction with the ATP-binding pocket.

X-ray crystallographic studies of a ternary complex between asciminib, nilotinib and the ABL1^46-534 protein possessing Thr315Ile and Asp382Asn substitutions show that asciminib binds to ABL1 in a deep-pocket on the C-lobe of the kinase domain, referred to as the myristate (or myristoyl) pocket. Nuclear magnetic resonance studies confirm that asciminib can also form asciminib-ABL1-TKI ternary complexes with thewild-typeABL^83-534 protein in solution.

Native ABL1 kinase is post-translationally myristoylated at the N-terminal glycine residue and this myristate group plays an important role in autoregulating the kinase by binding to a pocket (myristate pocket) on the catalytic domain of the protein to induce the formation of an inactive conformation of the enzyme. This regulatory mechanism is lost in BCR-ABL1 since the N-terminal region is replaced in the fusion protein with a fragment of the BCR protein, thus rendering the ABL1 kinase constitutively active. The binding of asciminib in this pocket therefore mimics that of myristate, thus stabilizing the inactive state of the ABL1 kinase.

Consistent with this binding mode to the ABL1 kinase, asciminib potently inhibits BCR-ABL1 driven proliferation of leukemia-derived cell lines, while having little effect on cells that do not express BCR-ABL1 (Figure 1). Thein vitrodata translates into anti-tumor activity in mouse models of CML where asciminib dose-dependently inhibited the growth of subcutaneous KCL22 cell xenografts, with 30 mg/kg administered twice-daily by oral gavage affording 92% tumor regression (Figure 2).

Asciminib, the first-in-class STAMP (Specifically Targeting the ABL Myristoyl Pocket) inhibitor, has several important features as a potential treatment of CML. At physiologically achievable concentrations asciminib can overcome mutations on the ATP-binding site of BCR-ABL1 that impede the binding of TKIs which lead to drug resistance in patients with CML. Secondly, by not inhibiting kinases such as EGFR, KIT, CSF1R, PDGFR or the sSRC-family kinases that are associated with off-target activities of TKIs such as bosutinib, dasatinib, imatinib, nilotinib and ponatinib, asciminib is not expected to be associated with cross-intolerance. Thirdly, asciminib can bind to the ABL1 kinase domain together with ATP-competitive TKIs to form ternary complexes, such that appropriate drug combinations should greatly impede the emergence of drug resistant kinase mutations.

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