Improved Electrophile Design for Exquisite Covalent Molecule Selectivity

Covalent inhibitors continue to show therapeutic promise. However, off-target reactivity challenges the field. Extensive efforts have been exerted to solve this issue by varying the reactivity attributes of electrophilic warheads, with features such as reversibility or metabolic vulnerability. Here we report the development of a new approach to increase the selectivity of covalent probes and small molecule inhibitors that is independent of warhead reactivity features and can be used in concert with already-existing methods. Using the Bruton’s Tyrosine Kinase (BTK) inhibitor Ibrutinib scaffold for our proof-of-concept, we reasoned that increasing the steric bulk of fumarate-based electrophiles on Ibrutinib should improve selectivity via the steric exclusion of off-targets but ideally retain rates of cysteine reactivity comparable to that of an acrylamide. Using chemical proteomic techniques, we demonstrate that elaboration of the electrophile to a tert-Butyl (t-Bu) fumarate ester significantly decreases time-dependent off-target reactivity and abolishes time-independent off-target reactivity but retains BTK target engagement. While an alkyne-bearing probe analog of Ibrutinib has 247 protein targets, our t-Bu fumarate Ibrutinib probe analog has only 7 protein targets. Of these 7 targets, BTK is the only time-independent target. This 2-order-of-magnitude increase in selectivity is also conferred to the t-Bu inhibitor itself. By shotgun proteomics, we investigated the consequences of treatment with Ibrutinib and our t-Bu analog and discovered that only 8 proteins are downregulated in response to treatment with the t-Bu analog compared to 107 with Ibrutinib. Of these 8 proteins, 7 are also downregulated by Ibrutinib and a majority of these targets are associated with BTK biology. Taken together, these findings reveal a previously-unappreciated opportunity to increase cysteine-reactive covalent inhibitor selectivity through electrophilic structure optimization.

Improved Electrophile Design for Exquisite Covalent Molecule Selectivity

Covalent inhibitors continue to show therapeutic promise. However, off-target reactivity challenges the field. Extensive efforts have been exerted to solve this issue by varying the reactivity attributes of electrophilic warheads, with features such as reversibility or metabolic vulnerability. Here we report the development of a new approach to increase the selectivity of covalent probes and small molecule inhibitors that is independent of warhead reactivity features and can be used in concert with already-existing methods. Using the Bruton’s Tyrosine Kinase (BTK) inhibitor Ibrutinib scaffold for our proof-of-concept, we reasoned that increasing the steric bulk of fumarate-based electrophiles on Ibrutinib should improve selectivity via the steric exclusion of off-targets but ideally retain rates of cysteine reactivity comparable to that of an acrylamide. Using chemical proteomic techniques, we demonstrate that elaboration of the electrophile to a tert-Butyl (t-Bu) fumarate ester significantly decreases time-dependent off-target reactivity and abolishes time-independent off-target reactivity but retains BTK target engagement. While an alkyne-bearing probe analog of Ibrutinib has 247 protein targets, our t-Bu fumarate Ibrutinib probe analog has only 7 protein targets. Of these 7 targets, BTK is the only time-independent target. This 2-order-of-magnitude increase in selectivity is also conferred to the t-Bu inhibitor itself. By shotgun proteomics, we investigated the consequences of treatment with Ibrutinib and our t-Bu analog and discovered that only 8 proteins are downregulated in response to treatment with the t-Bu analog compared to 107 with Ibrutinib. Of these 8 proteins, 7 are also downregulated by Ibrutinib and a majority of these targets are associated with BTK biology. Taken together, these findings reveal a previously-unappreciated opportunity to increase cysteine-reactive covalent inhibitor selectivity through electrophilic structure optimization.

Roles of metal ions in the selective inhibition of oncogenic variants of isocitrate dehydrogenase 1

Cancer linked isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH) 1 variants, notably R132H IDH1, manifest a ‘gain-of-function’ to reduce 2-oxoglutarate to 2-hydroxyglutarate. High-throughput screens have enabled clinically useful R132H IDH1 inhibitors, mostly allosteric binders at the dimer interface. We report investigations on roles of divalent metal ions in IDH substrate and inhibitor binding that rationalise this observation. Mg2+/Mn2+ ions enhance substrate binding to wt IDH1 and R132H IDH1, but with the former manifesting lower Mg2+/Mn2+KMs. The isocitrate-Mg2+ complex is the preferred wt IDH1 substrate; with R132H IDH1, separate and weaker binding of 2-oxoglutarate and Mg2+ is preferred. Binding of R132H IDH1 inhibitors at the dimer interface weakens binding of active site Mg2+ complexes; their potency is affected by the Mg2+ concentration. Inhibitor selectivity for R132H IDH1 over wt IDH1 substantially arises from different stabilities of wt and R132H IDH1 substrate-Mg2+ complexes. The results reveal the importance of substrate-metal ion complexes in wt and R132H IDH1 catalysis and the basis for selective R132H IDH1 inhibition. Further studies on roles of metal ion complexes in TCA cycle and related metabolism, including from an evolutionary perspective, are of interest.

Dissecting the molecular determinants of clinical PARP1 inhibitor selectivity for tankyrase1

Poly ADP ribosyltransferases play a critical role in DNA repair and cell death, and PARP1 is a particularly important therapeutic target for the treatment of breast cancer due to its synthetic lethal relationship with BRCA1/2. Numerous PARP1 inhibitors have been developed, and their efficacy in cancer treatment is attributed to both the inhibition of enzymatic activity and their ability to trap PARP1 on to the damaged DNA, which is cytotoxic. Of the clinical PARP inhibitors, talazoparib is the most effective at trapping PARP1 on damaged DNA. Biochemically, talazoparib is also suspected to be a potent inhibitor of PARP5a/b (tankyrase1/2), which is an important regulator of Wnt/β-catenin pathway. Here we show using competition experiments in cell lysate that, at a clinically relevant concentration, talazoparib can potentially bind and engage tankyrase1. Using surface plasmon resonance, we measured the dissociation constants of talazoparib, olaparib, niraparib and veliparib for their interaction with PARP1 and tankyrase1. The results show that talazoparib has strong affinity for PARP1 as well as uniquely strong affinity for tankyrase1. Finally, we used crystallography and hydrogen deuterium exchange mass spectroscopy to dissect the molecular mechanism of differential selectivity of these PARP1 inhibitors. From these data, we conclude that subtle differences between the ligand binding sites of PARP1 and tankyrase1, differences in the electrostatic nature of the ligands, protein dynamics, and ligand conformational energetics contribute to the different pharmacology of these PARP1 inhibitors. These results will help in the design of drugs to treat Wnt-β-catenin pathway-related cancers, such as colorectal cancers.

Harnessing Ionic Selectivity In Acetyltransferase Chemoproteomic Probes

Chemical proteomics provides a powerful strategy for the high-throughput assignment of enzyme function or inhibitor selectivity. However, identifying optimized probes for an enzyme family member of interest and differentiating signal from background remain persistent challenges in the field. To address this obstacle, here we report a physiochemical discernment strategy for optimizing chemical proteomics based on the Coenzyme A (CoA) cofactor. First, we synthesize a pair of CoA-based Sepharose pulldown resins differentiated by a single negatively charged residue, and find this change alters their capture properties in gel-based profiling experiments. Next, we integrate these probes with quantitative proteomics and benchmark analysis of ‘probe selectivity’ versus traditional ‘competitive chemical proteomics’. This reveals the former is well-suited for the identification of optimized pulldown probes for specific enzyme family members, while the latter may have advantages in discovery applications. Finally, we apply our anionic CoA pulldown probe to evaluate the selectivity of a recently reported small molecule N-terminal acetyltransferase inhibitor. These studies further validate the use of physical discriminant strategies in chemoproteomic hit identification and demonstrate how CoA-based chemoproteomic probes can be used to evaluate the selectivity of small molecule protein acetyltransferase inhibitors, an emerging class of pre-clinical therapeutic agents.