Acetoxymethyl ester of tetrabromobenzimidazole-peptoid conjugate for inhibition of protein kinase CK2 in living cells

CK2 is a ubiquitous serine/threonine protein kinase, which has the potential to catalyze the generation of a large proportion of the human phosphoproteome. Due to its role in numerous cellular functions and general anti-apoptotic activity, CK2 is an important target of research with therapeutic potential. This emphasizes the need for cell-permeable highly potent and selective inhibitors and photoluminescence probes of CK2 for investigating the protein phosphorylation networks in living cells. Previously, we had developed bisubstrate inhibitors for CK2 (CK2-targeted ARCs) that showed remarkable affinity (K _D < 1 nM) and selectivity, but lacked proteolytic stability and plasma membrane permeability. In this report, the structures of CK2-targeted ARCs were modified for the application in live cells. Based on structure-activity studies, proteolytically stable achiral oligoanionic peptoid conjugates of 4,5,6,7-tetrabromo-1H-benzimidazole (TBBz) were constructed. Affinity of the conjugates toward CK2 reached subnanomolar range. Acetoxymethyl (AM) prodrug strategy was applied for loading TBBz-peptoid conjugates into living cells. The uptake of inhibitors was visualized by live cell imaging and the reduction of the phosphorylation levels of two CK2-related phosphosites, Cdc37 pSer13 and NFkB pSer529, was demonstrated by Western blot analysis.