Aurora kinases play critical roles in the regulation of the cell cycle and mitotic spindle assembly.
Aurora A kinase, a member of the Aurora
protein family, is frequently highly expressed in
tumors, and selective Aurora A inhibition serves as a significant component of anticancer
therapy. However, designing highly selective Aurora A inhibitors is difficult because Aurora A and B share high homology and differ only by three residues in their
ATP-binding pockets. Through structure-based drug design, we designed and synthesized a series of novel
quinazolin-4-amine derivatives. These derivatives act as selective
Aurora A kinase inhibitors by exploiting the structural differences between Aurora A and B. The selectivities of most compounds were improved (the best up to >757-fold) when comparing with the lead compound (3-fold). In vitro biochemical and cellular assays revealed that compound 6 potently inhibited
Aurora A kinase and most human
tumor cells. Furthermore, compound 6 effectively suppressed
carcinoma, such as
triple-negative breast cancers (TNBC) in an animal model. Therefore, compound 6 might serve as a promising anticancer drug. Moreover, through molecular dynamic (MD) analysis, we have identified that a
salt bridge formed in Aurora B is key contributor for the
isoform selectivity of the inhibitor. This
salt bridge has not been previously detected in the reported crystal structure of Aurora B. These results might provide a crucial basis for the further development of highly potent inhibitors with high selectivity for Aurora A.