LAUSR

Background: Janus kinases (JAK1, JAK2, JAK3, and TYK2) play critical roles in mediating various cytokine signaling, and has been developed as a target for autoimmune diseases such as RA. Tofacitinib, oral Pan-JAK inhibitor, demonstrated efficacy in RA patients, but its widespread use is limited by safety issues. Baricitinib, JAK1/2 inhibitor, is also known to interfere with the hematopoiesis system, such as anemia and thrombocytopenia associated with suppression of JAK2 signals. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a new potent compound that selectively inhibits JAK1 over JAK2, 3 Objectives: To identify the pharmacological characteristic based on efficacy of CJ-15314 as potent and selective JAK1 inhibitor for treatment of autoimmune disease. Methods: In vitro, cell-based, kinase panel, Kd value and human whole blood assay were performed to determine the inhibition potency and selectivity for JAK subfamily kinases. In vivo therapeutic potential was evaluated by RA model including rat Adjuvant-Induced Arthritis (AIA) and collagen-induced arthritic (CIA). To confirm the possibility of further expansion into the autoimmune disease, BioMAP® Diversity PLUS® Panel was performed by discoverX. Results: In vitro assay, CJ-15314 inhibited JAK kinase family in a concentration-dependent manner with IC50 values of 3.8 nM against JAK1, Selectivity for JAK1 over JAK2, 3 was approximately 18, 83 fold greater for CJ-15314. In 1mM ATP condition, CJ-15314 has been confirmed to have the highest JAK1 selectivity over competing drugs, under 1 mM ATP condition that reflects the physiological environment in the body. Similarly, Kd values has also confirmed the selectivity of JAK1, which is 10 fold higher than JAK2, 3. Accordingly, in human whole blood assays, CJ-15314 is 11 fold more potent against IL-6 induced pSTAT1 inhibition through JAK1 (IC50 value: 70 nM) than GM-CSF-induced pSTAT5 inhibition (JAK2) whereas baricitinib and filgotinib exhibited only 2 fold and 7 fold respectively. In vivo efficacy model, CJ-15314 inhibited disease severity scores in a dose dependent manner. In the rat AIA model, CJ-15314 at 30 mg/kg dose showed 95.3% decrease in arthritis activity score, 51.2% in figotinib at 30 mg/kg, 97.7% showed baricitinib at 10 mg/kg. CJ-15314 showed superior anti-arthritic efficacy than filgotinib. CJ-15314 also minimally affected anemia-related parameters but not bricitinib end of the 2-week treatment. In the rat CIA model, like 10 mg/kg of bricitinib, 30 mg/kg of CJ-15314 also has a similar effect, with a significant reduction in histopathological scores. In biomap diversity panel, CJ-15314 inhibited the expression of genes such as MCP-1, VCAM-1, IP-10, IL-8, IL-1, sTNF-α and HLA-DR confirming the possibility of expansion into other diseases beyond arthritis. Conclusion: CJ-15314 is a highly selective JAK1 inhibitor, demonstrates robust efficacy in RA animal model and is good candidate for further development for inflammatory diseases. * CJ-15314 is currently conducting a phase I trial in south Korea. References: [1]Clark JD et al. Discovery and development of Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitors for inflammatory diseases. J Med Chem. 2014; 57(12):5023-38. [2]Burmester GR et al. Emerging cell and cytokine targets in rheumatoid arthritis. Nat Rev Rheumatol. 2014; 10(2):77-88 [3]Jean-Baptiste Telliez et al. Discovery of a JAK3-selective inhibitor: functional differentiation of JAK3-selective inhibition over pan-JAK or JAK1-selective inhibition. ACS Chem. Biol., 2016; 11 (12):3442-3451 Disclosure of Interests: so young Ki Employee of: CJ healthcare, hyunwoo shin Employee of: CJ healthcare, yelim lee Employee of: CJ healthcare, Hyoung rok Bak Employee of: CJ healthcare, hana yu Employee of: CJ healthcare, Seung Chan Kim Employee of: CJ healthcare, juhyun lee Employee of: CJ healthcare, donghyun kim Employee of: CJ healthcare, Dong-hyun Ko Employee of: CJ Healthcare, dongkyu kim Employee of: CJ healthcare