Structure-Activity Relationships and X-ray Structures Describing the Selectivity of Aminopyrazole Inhibitors for c-Jun N-terminal Kinase 3 (JNK3) over p38

c-Jun N-terminal kinase 3alpha1 (JNK3alpha1) is a mitogen-activated protein kinase family member expressed primarily in the brain that phosphorylates protein transcription factors, including c-Jun and activating transcription factor-2 (ATF-2) upon activation by a variety of stress-based stimuli. In this study, we set out to design JNK3-selective inhibitors that had >1000-fold selectivity over p38, another closely related mitogen-activated protein kinase family member. To do this we employed traditional medicinal chemistry principles coupled with structure-based drug design. Inhibitors from the aminopyrazole class, such as SR-3576, were found to be very potent JNK3 inhibitors (IC(50) = 7 nm)…