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Title: Structural biology contributions to the discovery of drugs to treat chronic myelogenous leukaemia

Journal Article · · Acta Crystallographica. Section D: Biological Crystallography

A case study showing how the determination of multiple cocrystal structures of the protein tyrosine kinase c-Abl was used to support drug discovery, resulting in a compound effective in the treatment of chronic myelogenous leukaemia. Chronic myelogenous leukaemia (CML) results from the Bcr-Abl oncoprotein, which has a constitutively activated Abl tyrosine kinase domain. Although most chronic phase CML patients treated with imatinib as first-line therapy maintain excellent durable responses, patients who have progressed to advanced-stage CML frequently fail to respond or lose their response to therapy owing to the emergence of drug-resistant mutants of the protein. More than 40 such point mutations have been observed in imatinib-resistant patients. The crystal structures of wild-type and mutant Abl kinase in complex with imatinib and other small-molecule Abl inhibitors were determined, with the aim of understanding the molecular basis of resistance and to aid in the design and optimization of inhibitors active against the resistance mutants. These results are presented in a way which illustrates the approaches used to generate multiple structures, the type of information that can be gained and the way that this information is used to support drug discovery.

OSTI ID:
22348011
Journal Information:
Acta Crystallographica. Section D: Biological Crystallography, Vol. 63, Issue Pt 1; Other Information: PMCID: PMC2483489; PMID: 17164530; PUBLISHER-ID: ba5102; OAI: oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:2483489; Copyright (c) International Union of Crystallography 2007; This is an open-access article distributed under the terms described at http://journals.iucr.org/services/termsofuse.html.; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0907-4449
Country of Publication:
Denmark
Language:
English