In vitro activity: R935788 is a methylene phosphate prodrug of R406, which can be rapidly converted to R406 in vivo. R406 (in vitro active form of R935788) selectively inhibits Syk-dependent signaling with EC50 values ranging from 33 nM to 171 nM, more potently than Syk-independent pathways in different cells. R406 inhibits cellular proliferation of a variety of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) cell lines with EC50 values ranging from 0.8 μM to 8.1 μM. R406 treatment reduces basal phosphorylation of BLNK, Akt, glycogen synthase kinase-3 (GSK-3), forkhead box O (FOXO) and ERK not only in cells with high (TCL-002) but also in cells with low levels of phosphorylated Syk (TCL1-551). In addition, R406 completely inhibits the anti-IgM induced Bcr signal in TCL1 leukemias. Despite the higher levels of constitutively active Syk in TCL1 leukemias, R406 is not selectively cytotoxic to the leukemic cells.

Kinase Assay: R406 (in vitro active form of R935788) is serially diluted in DMSO and then diluted to 1% DMSO in kinase buffer (20 mM HEPES, pH 7.4, 5 mM MgCl2, 2 mM MnCl2, 1 mM DTT, 0.1 mg/mL acetylated BGG). ATP and substrate in kinase buffer are added at room temperature, resulting in a final DMSO concentration on 0.2%. The kinase reactions are performed in a final volume of 20 μL containing 5 μM HS1 peptide substrate and 4 μM ATP and started by addition of 0.125 ng of Syk in kinase buffer. The reaction is allowed to proceed for 40 minutes at room temperature. The reaction is stopped by the addition of 20 μL of PTK quench mix containing EDTA/anti-phosphotyrosine antibody (1× final)/fluorescent phosphopeptide tracer (0.5× final) diluted in FP Dilution Buffer. The plate is incubated for 30 minutes in the dark at room temperature and then read on a Polarion fluorescence polarization plate reader. Data is converted to determine the amount of phosphopeptide present using a calibration curve generated by competition with the phosphopeptide competitor provided in the Tyrosine Kinase Assay Kit. For IC50 determination, R406 is tested at eleven concentrations in duplicate and curve-fitting is performed by non-linear regression analysis using Prism GraphPad Software.

Cell Assay: Cells (TCL1-002, TCL1-252, TCL1-551, TCL1-870, and TCL1-540) are exposed to increasing concentrations of R406 (in vitro active form of R935788) for 48 hours. The percentage of apoptotic cells is determined by double staining with propidium iodide (PI) and annexin-A5–FITC conjugate. Ki-67 staining is performed with the FITC mouse anti–Ki-67 set. Samples are analyzed on a FACSCalibur flow cytometer with CellQuest Version 3.3 software.