Nutlin

Nutlins are cis-imidazoline analogs which inhibit the interaction between mdm2 and tumour suppressor p53, and were discovered by screening a chemical library by Vassilev et al. Nutlin-1, Nutlin-2 and Nutlin-3 were all identified in the same screen, however Nutlin-3 is the compound most commonly used in anti-cancer studies. . Inhibiting the interaction between mdm2 and p53 stabilizes p53 and is thought to selectively induce a growth-inhibiting state called senescence in cancer cells. These compounds are therefore thought to work best on tumors that contain normal or wild type p53. Nutlin-3 has been shown to affect the production of p53 within minutes.