Evolution of kinase polypharmacology across HSP90 drug discovery

Abstract

Most small molecules interact with several target proteins but this polypharmacology is seldom comprehensively investigated or explicitly exploited during drug discovery. Here, we use computational and experimental methods to systematically characterize the kinase cross-pharmacology of representative HSP90 inhibitors. We demonstrate that the resorcinol clinical candidates ganetespib and, to a lesser extent, luminespib, display unique off-target kinase pharmacology as compared to other HSP90 inhibitors. We also demonstrate that polypharmacology evolved during the optimisation to discover luminespib and that the hit, leads and clinical candidate all have different polypharmacological profiles. We conclude that the submicromolar target inhibition of protein kinases by ganetespib may have potential clinical significance and we recommend the computational and experimental characterization of polypharmacology earlier in drug discovery projects to unlock new multi-target drug design opportunities.