Structure-based design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of imidazo[1,2-b]pyridazine-based p38 MAP kinase inhibitors.

Abstract We identified novel potent inhibitors of p38 MAP kinase using structure-based design strategy. X-ray crystallography showed that when p38 MAP kinase is complexed with TAK-715 ( 1 ) in a co-crystal structure, Phe169 adopts two conformations, where one interacts with 1 and the other shows no interaction with 1 . Our structure-based design strategy shows that these two conformations converge into one via enhanced protein-ligand hydrophobic interactions. According to the strategy, we focused on scaffold transformation to identify imidazo[1,2- b ]pyridazine derivatives as potent inhibitors of p38 MAP kinase. Among the herein described and evaluated compounds, N -oxide 16 exhibited potent inhibition of p38 MAP kinase and LPS-induced TNF-α production in human monocytic THP-1 cells, and significant in vivo efficacy in rat collagen-induced arthritis models. In this article, we report the discovery of potent, selective and orally bioavailable imidazo[1,2- b ]pyridazine-based p38 MAP kinase inhibitors with pyridine N -oxide group.