Discovery of novel BRD4 inhibitors by high-throughput screening, crystallography, and cell-based assays.
Sun, Z., Zhang, H., Chen, Z., Xie, Y., Jiang, H., Chen, L., Ding, H., Zhang, Y., Jiang, H., Zheng, M., Luo, C.(2017) Bioorg Med Chem Lett 27: 2003-2009
- PubMed: 28347667 
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bmcl.2017.03.012
- Primary Citation of Related Structures:  
5WUU - PubMed Abstract: 
As an epigenetic reader, BRD4 regulates the transcription of important downstream genes that are essential for the survival of tumor cells. Small molecular inhibitors targeting the first bromodomain of BRD4 (BRD4-BD1) have showed promising potentials in the therapies of BRD4-related cancers. Through AlphaScreen-based high-throughput screening assay, a novel small molecular inhibitor was identified, and named DCBD-005, which inhibited the binding between BRD4-BD1 and acetylated lysines with an IC 50 value of 0.81±0.03μM. The compound DCBD-005 effectively inhibited the viability, caused cell cycle arrest, and induced apoptosis in human leukemia MV4-11 cells. Moreover, the crystal structure of compound DCBD-005 with the BRD4-BD1 was determined at 1.72Å resolution, which revealed the binding mechanism of the leading compound, and also provided solid basis for further structure-based optimization. These results indicated that this novel BRD4-BD1 inhibitor DCBD-005 is promising to be developed into a drug candidate in the treatment of BRD4-related diseases.
Organizational Affiliation: 
School of Pharmacy, Nanchang University, 461 Bayi Road, Nanchang 330006, China.