Discovery and structure-activity relationships of novel piperidine inhibitors of farnesyltransferase

A novel piperidine series of farnesyltransferase (FTase) inhibitors is described. Systematic medicinal chemistry studies starting with the lead compound, discovered from a 5-nitropiperidin-2-one combinatorial library, resulted in a potent series of novel FTase inhibitors. We found that all of four substituents of the piperidine core played an important role for FTase inhibition. A 10-fold increase in potency was observed by changing the piperidine-2-one core to the corresponding piperidine core. This class of compounds was found to inhibit farnesyltransferase in a Ras competitive manner. Optical resolution of several potent inhibitors revealed that the (+)-enantiomers showed potent farnesyltransferase inhibition. (+)-8 inhibited FTase with an IC50 of 1.9 nM.