Skepinone-L
Skepinone-L : ATP competitive inhibitor of MAPK14
Structure
In Cells
In Model Organisms
SERP ratings and comments
SERP Ratings
SERP Comments:
Skepinone-L is a potent, selective, and cell active p38 inhibitor. It is orally bioavailable in mice. It shows exquisite kinase selectivity, as measured by screening against broad panels at Ambit (DiscoveRx) and ProQinase. Part of this selectivity arises from the design of the molecule to take advantage of the so-called "glycine flip", which can only occur in a small subset of kinases.
(last updated: 18 Mar 2017 )
SERP Ratings
SERP Comments:
Experiments for selectivity in cells included an Ambit screen and a ProQuinase panel. Structure-activity relationships are logical and structurally based. I would like to see evidence for and against off-targets beyond kinases, but otherwise this is a potent, orally bioavailable probe with very good selectivity. A careful metabolism study was reported in DOI: 10.1039/C4MD00106K.
(last updated: 2 Apr 2017 )
SERP Ratings
SERP Comments:
Skepinone-L is a potent (5 nM) p38alpha/beta-dual inhibitor with wonderful kinome selectivity (minimal to no activity on 300+ kinases at 1 uM). It has activity in a cell-based, mechanistic assay at 25 nM and relevant phenotypic assay at 30-50 nM, and showed reduction of a relevant biomarker when dosed orally in mice at 3 mg/kg. A smooth sigmoidal dose response in the mechanistic assay suggests no cytotoxicity at the high dose of 10 uM, though its unclear of HSP27 phosphorylation in the time frame of the assay is a good indicator of cytotoxicity. Dose response was not reported for phenotypic endpoints. In vitro metabolism reported elsewhere suggests comparable PK in rat and some gender differences in both species, but these findings have not been confirmed in vivo. This appears to be a good tool for research, with the caveat that there may be better characterized tools for chronic, in vivo dosing available among the many clinical assets that have been disclosed, including SCIO-469/talmapimod (even more selective), VX-702, VX-745, losmapimod, dilmapimod, pamapimod, etc. For most of those molecules, more chronic, disease-relevant endpoints have been reported, and by virtue of their administration to humans, we can implicitly assume they have a relatively clean tox history in rodents at doses above the therapeutic dose (if not explicitly reported). If selectivity over p38beta is required for in vitro experiments, SX-011 appears to be the most selective tool available (~250X selective for p38alpha over beta). |
(last updated: 2 Jun 2017 )