Benzazole analogues and uses thereof

This is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/317,909, filed Dec. 22, 2005, which claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/640,024, filed Dec. 27, 2004. The contents of both applications are incorporated herein in their entirety.

The present invention relates to benzazoles of the general formula (I) or a salt or a physiologically functional derivative or a stereoisomer thereof, for use as a medicament. The compounds of the invention are exceptionally useful for the treatment of diseases associated with abnormal and hyperproliferation of cells in a mammal, especially humans. In particular, they are useful for the treatment of all forms of cancer.

Furthermore a process of preparing said benzazole derivatives is disclosed.

Protein kinases play a central role in the regulation of cellular functions. This includes processes like cell growth and division, cell differentiation and cell death, but also many other cellular activities. Protein kinases catalyze the transfer of phosphate residues from ATP on target proteins which as a consequence of this protein kinase mediated phosphorylation change their three-dimensional structure and thereby their physiological function. Depending on the amino acid which becomes phosphorylated by a protein kinase these enzymes are grouped in two families, the so-called serine/threonine protein kinases and the tyrosine protein kinases.

Based on the human genome project it is known that in human beings there exist 518 DNA sequences which encode for a protein kinase-like protein sequence. In the last about 20 years for several of these 518 proteins it could be shown that modifications in their related gene sequences (e.g. point mutations, deletions or gene amplifications) result in pathological changes of the cellular activities of the corresponding protein kinase. This is in particular true for protein kinases which are involved in cell proliferation and cell cycle control, in survival of cells and cell death, in tumor angiogenesis, and in formation of tumor metastases.

Several so-called oncogenes are pathologically modified genes which in their proto-oncogenic form encode for protein kinases involved in normal, physiological regulation of cell growth and division.

Since protein kinases are key regulators of cell functions and since they can show dysregulated enzymatic activity in cells they are promising targets for the development of therapeutic agents.

There are many ongoing drug discovery projects in the pharmaceutical industry with the goal to identify modulators of protein kinases. The major focus is currently on protein kinases involved in inflammation and cancer, but besides this protein kinases are currently discussed as promising targets in almost every disease area.

In the tumor field the first protein kinase inhibitors (Gleevec, Iressa) have already reached the market. In addition, a great number of protein kinase inhibitors are currently in various phases of clinical development. In most cases these compounds are either targeting subtypes of the EGF (Epidermal Growth Factor) receptor or of the VEGF (Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor) receptor. All these compounds have been developed with the goal to specifically inhibit one particular protein kinase, for which there is evidence that it interferes with one of the four major molecular processes of tumor progression. These four processes are (1) cell proliferation/cell cycle control, (2) regulation of programmed cell death (apoptosis) and cell survival, (3) tumor angiogenesis and (4) tumor metastasis.

The present invention relates to benzazole derivatives which may be useful for inhibition of protein kinases involved in diseases besides cancer, but which are especially useful as anti-tumor agents. This includes monospecific protein kinase inhibitors, which preferentially inhibit one protein kinase which is causatively involved in tumor progression, but also so-called multi-target protein kinase inhibitors, which inhibit at least two different protein kinases which play a role in two or more different molecular mechanism of tumor progression. As an example, such a compound could be an inhibitor of tumor angiogenesis and, in addition, also a stimulator of apoptosis.

The concept of multi-target protein kinase inhibitors is a new approach although the idea of developing “multiplex protein kinase inhibitors” has already been described by J. Adams et al., Current Opinion in Chemical Biology 6, 486-492, 2002. Therein compounds are described, which, at the same time, inhibit several protein kinases, which however all are involved in one molecular mechanism of tumor progression, namely tumor angiogenesis.

In WO 2004/085425 benzazoles are described as kinase inhibitors. In WO 99/24035 2-aminobenzothiazoles are described. These compounds have also been published in Das et al., Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett 13, 2003, 2587-2590 and in Das et al., Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett 13, 2003, 2145-2149. In WO 2000/061580 benzimidazolyl- and benzoxazolylacetylaminopyridyl butyrates are described as integrin antagonists. In WO 99/40072 five-membered, benzo-condensed heterocycles used as antithrombotics of are described.

The object of the present invention is solved by the teaching of the independent claims. Further advantageous features, aspects and details of the invention are evident from the dependent claims, the description, the figures, and the examples of the present application.

Considering the lack of currently available treatment options for the majority of the conditions associated with protein kinases like ABL1, ACV-R1, AKT1, AKT2, AKT3, ARK5, Aurora-A, Aurora-B, Aurora-C, B-RAF, BRK, CDC42BPB, CDK1, CDK2, CDK3, CDK4, CDK5, CDK6, CDK7, CDK9, CHK1, CK2, COT, CSK, DAPK1, EGF-R, EPHA1, EPHA2, EPHA4, EPHB1, EPHB2, EPHB3, EPHB4, ERBB2, ERBB4, FAK, FGF-R1, FGF-R³, FGF-R4, FGR, FLT3, GSK3-beta, HCK, IGF1-R, IKK-beta, IKK-epsilon, INS-R, IRAK4, ITK, JAK2, JAK3, JNK3, KIT, LCK, LYN, MAPKAPK5, MET, MST4, MUSK, NEK2, NEK6, NLK, PAK1, PAK2, PAK4, PBK, PCTAIRE1, PDGFR-alpha, PDGFR-beta, PDK1, PIM1, PIM2, PKC-alpha, PKC-beta1, PKC-beta2, PKC-delta, PKC-epsilon, PKC-eta, PKC-gamma, PKC-iota, PKC-mu, PKC-theta, PKC-zeta, PLK1, PRK1, RET, ROCK2, S6K, SAK, SGK1, SGK3, SNK, SRC, SRPK2, SYK, TGFB-R1, TIE2, TSF1, TSK2, TTK, VEGF-R1, VEGF-R², VEGF-R³, VRK1, WEE1, YES, ZAP70 especially with protein kinases like EGF-R (cell proliferation), ERBB2 (cell proliferation), PDGFR (cell proliferation), FLT3 (cell proliferation), Aurora-A (cell cycle control), Aurora-B (cell cycle control), IGF1-R (apoptosis), VEGF-R2 (angiogenesis), VEGF-R3 (angiogenesis), TIE2 (angiogenesis), EPHB4 (angiogenesis), FAK (metastasis), and SRC kinase (metastasis), there is still a great need for new therapeutic agents that inhibit these protein targets. Herein described benzazole derivatives are a new group of protein kinase inhibitors which show differential inhibition of protein kinases, each of which can be assigned to one of the four molecular mechanism of tumor development.

The present invention relates to compounds of the general formula (I) or a salt or a physiologically functional derivative or a stereoisomer thereof,