Preclinical development of myosolvins, a new class of medicine for asthma

描述(由申请者提供)：呼吸道平滑肌(ASM)是严重哮喘的一个有吸引力的治疗靶点。目前的支气管扩张剂药物对严重哮喘非常无效，可能是因为它们激活了一个漫长而复杂的松弛信号通路，其多个步骤很容易被混淆松弛信号的炎症激活通路所拮抗。相反，干扰ASM收缩的一个更有力的策略是直接瞄准收缩装置。为此，我们在小鼠肺切片中确定了抑制平滑肌肌球蛋白聚合、松弛人呼吸道肌细胞和钝化支气管收缩的小分子，并从这些小分子中选择了一种铅化合物。我们现在提出一个全面的计划，其中先导化合物的药效、效力、选择性、安全性以及吸入给药时所需的药理和药学特性都经过了化学优化。该计划将最终开发出一种新的候选药物，其临床前特性证明其适合在人类哮喘患者身上进行测试。将提交IND申请，以便进行此类测试。如果成功，该项目将导致一种新型哮喘药物(平滑肌肌球蛋白聚合抑制剂)的完全临床前开发，该药物具有针对新分子靶点(平滑肌肌球蛋白细丝)的全新作用机制(字面意思是溶解收缩装置)。因为它们能溶解肌球蛋白细丝，我们把这种新型药物称为“肌球蛋白”。 (摘要结束)

Description (provided by applicant): Airway smooth muscle (ASM) represents an attractive therapeutic target in severe asthma. Current bronchodilator medications are remarkably ineffective in severe asthma, probably because they activate a long and complex relaxant signaling pathway, whose multiple steps are vulnerable to antagonism by inflammation- activated pathways that confound relaxant signaling. Instead, a more robust strategy to disrupt ASM contraction is to target the contractile apparatus directly. To this end, we identified small molecules that inhibit smooth muscle myosin polymerization, relax human airway myocytes, and blunt bronchoconstriction in mouse lung slices and from these selected a lead compound. We now propose a comprehensive program in which the lead compound is chemically optimized for efficacy, potency, selectivity, safety, and desirable pharmacological and pharmaceutical properties when administered by inhalation. This program will culminate in the development of a new candidate medicine whose preclinical properties demonstrate its suitability for testing in human asthmatics. An IND application will be submitted to enable such testing. If successful, this project will result in the complete preclinical development of a new class of asthma medication (smooth muscle myosin polymerization inhibitor) with an entirely novel mechanism of action (literally dissolving the contractile apparatus) directed at a novel molecular target (smooth muscle myosin filaments). Because they dissolve myosin filaments, we call the new class of medication "myosolvins". (End of Abstract)