A chemistry wiki to facilitate and enhance compound design in drug discovery

At AstraZeneca a focus on hypothesis-driven design and the formation of drug design teams has placed a greater emphasis on collaboration in the drug discovery process. We have created a novel software tool based on the principles of wikis and social networks to facilitate collaborative working, visual planning and incorporation of predictive science to improve design capability. Monitoring the design and make process via the tool enabled the identification of bottlenecks and delays. Solutions to these problems were implemented, reducing the time taken from the initial idea stage to the generation of the synthesised compound by more than 50%

Unexpected reactivity of two-coordinate palladium carbene complexes; synthetic and catalytic implications

Ligand exchange reactions reveal unexpected lability of the carbene ligands in two coordinate palladium(0) N-heterocyclic carbene complexes; the latter are found to be very effective catalysts for amination of aryl chlorides

The first example of simple oxidative addition of an aryl chloride to a discrete palladium (n-heterocyclic carbene) amination precatalyst

The oxidative addition of an aryl chloride to a discrete palladium n-heteocyclic carbene amination precatalyst, was discussed. It was found that the oxidative addition of 4-chlorotoluene to Pd(0) resulted in the formation of not a four-coordinate complex but rather the arylated imidazolium salt. The identity of imidazolium salt was confirmed by x-ray crystallography

An improved synthesis of bis(1, 3-di-N-tert-buylimidazol-2-ylidene)palladium(0) and its use in C-C and C-N coupling reactions

A new, improved synthesis of [Pd{CN(tBu)(CH)2N(tBu)}2] (1) and its use as a catalyst in coupling reactions, including aminations, is presented. An interesting side product formed in the synthesis of 1, [Pd(¿3-C4H7){(CN(tBu)(CH) 2N(tBu)}Cl] (2), is also discussed. © 2001 Elsevier Science B.V

Optimisation of aqueous solubility in a series of G protein coupled receptor 119 (GPR119) agonists

Solubility improvements in a series of GPR119 agonists are achieved through reduction of lipophilicity together with hydrogen bond acceptor modulation.</p

Antitumor Activity of Osimertinib, an Irreversible Mutant-Selective EGFR Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitor, in NSCLC Harboring EGFR Exon 20 Insertions.

EGFR exon 20 insertions (Ex20Ins) account for 4% to 10% of EGFR activating mutations in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). EGFR Ex20Ins tumors are generally unresponsive to first- and second-generation EGFR inhibitors, and current standard of care for NSCLC patients with EGFR Ex20Ins is conventional cytotoxic chemotherapy. Therefore, the development of an EGFR TKI that can more effectively target NSCLC with EGFR Ex20Ins mutations represents a major advance for this patient subset. Osimertinib is a third-generation EGFR TKI approved for the treatment of advanced NSCLC harboring EGFR T790M; however, the activity of osimertinib in EGFR Ex20Ins NSCLC has yet to be fully assessed. Using CRISPR-Cas 9 engineered cell lines carrying the most prevalent Ex20Ins mutations, namely Ex20Ins D770_N771InsSVD (22%) or Ex20Ins V769_D770InsASV (17%), and a series of patient-derived xenografts, we have characterized osimertinib and AZ5104 (a circulating metabolite of osimertinib) activities against NSCLC harboring Ex20Ins. We report that osimertinib and AZ5104 inhibit signaling pathways and cellular growth in Ex20Ins mutant cell lines in vitro and demonstrate sustained tumor growth inhibition of EGFR-mutant tumor xenograft harboring the most prevalent Ex20Ins in vivo The antitumor activity of osimertinib and AZ5104 in NSCLC harboring EGFR Ex20Ins is further described herein using a series of patient-derived xenograft models. Together these data support clinical testing of osimertinib in patients with EGFR Ex20Ins NSCLC. Mol Cancer Ther; 17(5); 885-96. ©2018 AACR