Structurally diverse inhibitors of the protein kinase CK2 are required for regulation of this ubiquitous protein to establish biological roles of the enzyme which catalyzes the phosphorylation of a vast number of substrate proteins. In this article we disclose a series of new bisubstrate inhibitors of CK2 that are structurally represented by the oligo(l-Asp) peptide conjugates of benzo[c][2,6]naphthyridine-8-carboxylic acid. This fragment originated from CX-4945, the first in class inhibitor taken to clinical trials. The most potent conjugates possessed two-digit picomolar affinity and clear selectivity for CK2α in a panel of 140 protein kinases. Labeling of the inhibitors with a fluorescent dye yielded probes for a fluorescence anisotropy-based binding/displacement assay which can be used for analysis of CK2 and precise determination of affinity of the highly potent (tight-binding) CK2-targeting inhibitors.
Keywords: Biligand; Bisubstrate inhibitor; CK2; Fluorescence anisotropy; Fluorescence probe; Protein kinase.
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