Discovery of Orally Active Inhibitors of Brahma Homolog (BRM)/SMARCA2 ATPase Activity for the Treatment of Brahma Related Gene 1 (BRG1)/SMARCA4-Mutant Cancers
Abstract
SWI/SNF-related, matrix-associated, actin-dependent regulator of chromatin subfamily A member 2 (SMARCA2), also known as Brahma homologue (BRM), is a Snf2-family DNA-dependent ATPase. BRM and its close homologue Brahma-related gene 1 (BRG1), also known as SMARCA4, are mutually exclusive ATPases of the large ATP-dependent SWI/SNF chromatin-remodeling complexes involved in transcriptional regulation of gene expression. No small molecules have been reported that modulate SWI/SNF chromatin-remodeling activity via inhibition of its ATPase activity, an important goal given the well-established dependence of BRG1-deficient cancers on BRM. Here, we describe allosteric dual BRM and BRG1 inhibitors that downregulate BRM-dependent gene expression and show antiproliferative activity in a BRG1-mutant-lung-tumor xenograft model upon oral administration. These compounds represent useful tools for understanding the functions of BRM in BRG1-loss-of-function settings and should enable probing the role of SWI/SNF functions more broadly in different cancer contexts and those of other diseases.
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Due to dual inhibition of SMARCA2 and SMARCA4, allosteric inhibitors have a dose-limiting tolerability issue that hampers further exploration.
“However, due to the dual inhibition of SMARCA2 and SMARCA4, these allosteric inhibitors have a dose-limiting tolerability issue that hampered their further exploration.”
From Proteolysis targeting chimeras (PROTACs) are emerging therapeutics for hematologic malignancies (2020) · cites this paper as [170]
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- Authors
- Papillon, J. P. N., Nakajima, K., Adair, C. D., Hempel, J., Jouk, A. O., Karki, R. G., Mathieu, S., Möbitz, H., Ntaganda, R., Smith, T., Visser, M., Hill, S. E., Hurtado, F. K., Chenail, G., Bhang, H.-E. C., Bric, A., Xiang, K., Bushold, G., Gilbert, T., Vattay, A., Dooley, J., Costa, E. A., Park, I., Li, A., Farley, D., Lounkine, E., Yue, Q. K., Xie, X., Zhu, X., Kulathila, R., King, D., Hu, T., Vulic, K., Cantwell, J., Luu, C., & Jagani, Z.
- Affiliations
- Novartis (Switzerland) (CH)
- Novartis (United States) (US)
- Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, 5300 Chiron Way, Emeryville, California 94608, United States
- Corresponding author
- Papillon, Julien P. N.
- ORCID
- Venue
- Journal of Medicinal Chemistry
- Publisher
- American Chemical Society (ACS)
- Published
- 2018-10-19
- Volume
- 61
- Issue
- 22
- Pages
- 10155-10172
- ISSN
- 0022-2623 (ISSN-L)
- 1520-4804
- OpenAlex
- W2899982406
- Cited by
- 244
- References
- 36
- Citations by year
- 2026: 31 · 2025: 53 · 2024: 51 · 2023: 37 · 2022: 21 · 2021: 20 · 2020: 19 · 2019: 11
- FWCI
- 4.42
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Medicinal Chemistry (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Chromatin Remodeling and Cancer
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Protein Degradation and Inhibitors
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Genomics and Chromatin Dynamics
- Keywords
- BRM, SMARCA2, SMARCA4, SWI/SNF complex, ATPase inhibitors, allosteric inhibitors, lung cancer, oral bioavailability, antiproliferative activity, gene expression regulation
- MeSH terms
- Administration, Oral, Animals, Antineoplastic Agents, DNA Helicases, Dose-Response Relationship, Drug, Humans, Models, Molecular, Mutation, Nuclear Proteins, Protein Conformation, Structure-Activity Relationship, Transcription Factors, Drug Design, Xenograft Model Antitumor Assays, Cell Line, Tumor, Mice
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