Structure-Guided Design and Optimization of Covalent VHL-Targeted Sulfonyl Fluoride PROTACs

Overview

Journal J Med Chem

Publisher American Chemical Society

Specialty Chemistry

Date 2024 Mar 13

PMID 38478885

Authors

Rishi R Shah

Elena De Vita

Preethi S Sathyamurthi

Daniel Conole

Xinyue Zhang

Elliot Fellows

Eleanor R Dickinson

Carlos M Fleites

Markus A Queisser

John D Harling

Edward W Tate

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Proteolysis-targeting chimeras (PROTACs) are heterobifunctional molecules that have emerged as a therapeutic modality to induce targeted protein degradation (TPD) by harnessing cellular proteolytic degradation machinery. PROTACs which ligand the E3 ligase in a covalent manner have attracted intense interest; however, covalent PROTACs with a broad protein of interest (POI) scope have proven challenging to discover by design. Here, we report the structure-guided design and optimization of Von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) protein-targeted sulfonyl fluorides which covalently bind Ser110 in the HIF1α binding site. We demonstrate that their incorporation in bifunctional degraders induces targeted protein degradation of BRD4 or the androgen receptor without further linker optimization. Our study discloses the first covalent VHL ligands which can be implemented directly in bifunctional degrader design, expanding the substrate scope of covalent E3 ligase PROTACs.

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