apilimod apilimod apilimod (sta-5326) is a drug that was initially identified as an inhibitor of production of the interleukins il-12 and il-23, and developed for the oral treatment of autoimmune conditions such as crohn's disease and rheumatoid arthritis, though clinical trial results were disappointing and development for these applications was not continued. apilimodclinical datatrade namesapilimodlegal statuslegal status us: investigational new drug identifiers iupac name n--6-morpholin-4-yl-2-(2-pyridin-2-ylethoxy)pyrimidin-4-amine cas number541550-19-0pubchem cid10173277drugbank05611chemspider8348782uniigfw2k84s4lecha infocard100.237.985 chemical and physical dataformulac23h26n6o2molar mass418.5 g·mol−13d model (jsmol)interactive image smiles cc1=cc(=cc=c1)/c=n/nc2=cc(=nc(=n2)occc3=cc=cc=n3)n4ccocc4 inchi inchi=1s/c23h26n6o2/c1-18-5-4-6-19(15-18)17-25-28-21-16-22(29-10-13-30-14-11-29)27-23(26-21)31-12-8-20-7-2-3-9-24-20/h2-7,9,15-17h,8,10-14h2,1h3,(h,26,27,28)/b25-17+key:hskazijjkrajav-koeqrzsosa-n subsequently, it was discovered that apilimod has an additional mode of action, as an inhibitor of the lipid kinase enzyme pikfyve. pikfyve makes two lipids, ptdins5p and ptdins(3,5)p2, whose syntheses are efficiently and similarly inhibited by apilimod (id50 = 0.4 nm) in in vitro assays. administration of apilimod (100 nm; 60 min) in human embryonic kidney cells powerfully reduces levels of both ptdins5p and ptdins(3,5)p2. recently apilimod has been repurposed as a potential antiviral and anti-cancer drug, with possible applications in the treatment of non-hodgkin lymphoma as well as viral diseases such as ebola virus disease, lassa fever and covid-19.