Activity-based kinase profiling of approved tyrosine kinase inhibitors

The specificities of nine approved tyrosine kinase inhibitors (imatinib, dasatinib, nilotinib, gefitinib, erlotinib, lapatinib, sorafenib, sunitinib, and pazopanib) were determined by activity-based kinase profiling using a large panel of human recombinant active kinases. This panel consisted of 79 tyrosine kinases, 199 serine/threonine kinases, three lipid kinases, and 29 disease-relevant mutant kinases. Many potential targets of each inhibitor were identified by kinase profiling at the Km for ATP. In addition, profiling at a physiological ATP concentration (1 mm) was carried out, and the IC50 values of the inhibitors against each kinase were compared with the estimated plasma-free concentration (calculated from published pharmacokinetic parameters of plasma Ctrough and Cmax values). This analysis revealed that the approved kinase inhibitors were well optimized for their target kinases. This profiling also implicates activity at particular off-target kinases in drug side effects. Thus, large-scale kinase profiling at both Km and physiological ATP concentrations could be useful in characterizing the targets and off-targets of kinase inhibitors.