Optimization of carbazole carboxamide RORγt agonists: Challenges in improving the metabolic stability and maintaining the agonistic activity

Based on two previously discovered carbazole carboxamide retinoic acid receptor-related orphan receptor-γt (RORγt) agonists 6 and 7 (t_1/2 = 8.7 min and 16.4 min in mouse liver microsome, respectively), new carbazole carboxamides were designed and synthesized according to the molecular mechanism of action (MOA) and metabolic site analysis with the aim of identifying novel RORγt agonists with optimal pharmacological and metabolic profiles. By modifying the “agonist lock” touching substitutions on carbazole ring, introducing heteroatoms into different parts of the molecule and attaching a side chain to the sulfonyl benzyl moiety, several potent RORγt agonists were identified with greatly improved metabolic stability. Best overall properties were achieved in compound (R)-10f with high agonistic activities in RORγt dual FRET (EC₅₀ = 15.6 nM) and Gal4 reporter gene (EC₅₀ = 141 nM) assays and greatly improved metabolic stability (t_1/2 > 145 min) in mouse liver microsome. Besides, the binding modes of (R)-10f and (S)-10f in RORγt ligand binding domain (LBD) were also studied. Altogether, the optimization of carbazole carboxamides led to the discovery of (R)-10f as a potential small molecule therapeutics for cancer immunotherapy.