To examine the cytotoxic activity of congeners of 3-amino-isoquinoline, we performed the phenotypic screening using panel of 60 cell lines and found that (N-(6,7-dimethoxy-1-methyl-isoquinolin-3-yl)-4-{[(1-ethyl-4-methyl-1H-pyrazol-3-yl)methyl]amino}benzamide (4d)) exhibited the significant effect against different tumor cell lines while showing the high activity toward human colorectal cancer HCT-116 cells (IC50 = 18 μm) and human breast cancer T-47D cells (GI50 = 1.9 μm). Virtual screening indicated that these compounds target protein kinases and phosphodiesterases (PDE). However, wet screening among panel of protein kinases did not show any significant activity. By contrast, 50 μm of 4c and 4d inhibited the growth of HKe3-mtKRAS spheroids in the 3D floating (3DF) culture suggesting that 4c and 4d target PDE4B which is selectively upregulated by mtKRAS in 3DF culture.
Chem Biol Drug Des. 2016 Apr;87(4):575-82. doi: 10.1111/cbdd.12691. Epub 2015 Dec 29.

Detection of activating EGFR mutations in NSCLC is the prerequisite for individualised therapy with receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI). In contrast, mutant downstream effector KRAS is associated with TKI resistance. Accordingly, EGFR mutation status is routinely examined in NSCLC specimens, but the employed methods may have a dramatic impact on the interpretation of results and, consequently, therapeutic decisions. Specimens with low tumour cell content are at particular risk for alsenegative EGFR mutation reporting by sequencing with Sanger chemistry. To improve reliability of detecting clinically relevant mutant variants of EGFR and KRAS, we took full advantage of 454 deep sequencing and developed a two step amplification protocol for the analysis of EGFR exons 18–21 and KRAS exons 2 and 3. We systematically addressed the sensitivity, reproducibility and specificity of the developed assay. Mutations could be reliably identified down to an allele frequency of 0.2–1.5 %, as opposed to 10–20 % detection limit of Sanger sequencing. High reproducibility (0–2.1 % variant frequency) and very low background level (0.4–0.8 % frequency) further complement the reliability of this assay. Notably, re-evaluation of 16 NSCLC samples with low tumour cell content ≤40 % and EGFR wild type status according to Sanger sequencing revealed clinically relevant EGFR mutations at allele frequencies of 0.9–10 % in seven cases. In summary, this novel two-step amplification protocol with 454 deep sequencing is superior to Sanger sequencing with significantly increased sensitivity, enabling reliable analysis of EGFR and KRAS in NSCLC samples independent of the tumour cell content.
Virchows Archiv (2013) 462(4): 409-419