Cited by 396Protein Degradation and InhibitorsSynthesis and biological activityGenomics and Chromatin Dynamics

Covalent targeting of remote cysteine residues to develop CDK12 and CDK13 inhibitors

Open access
Zhang, Tinghu, Kwiatkowski, Nicholas, Olson, Calla M, Dixon-Clarke, Sarah E, Abraham, Brian J, Greifenberg, Ann K, Ficarro, Scott B, Elkins, Jonathan M +11 more·2016·Nature Chemical Biology

Abstract

Cyclin-dependent kinases 12 and 13 (CDK12 and 13) play critical roles in the regulation of gene transcription. However, the absence of CDK12 and 13 inhibitors has hindered the ability to investigate the consequences of their inhibition in healthy cells and cancer cells. Here we describe the rational design of a first-in-class CDK12 and 13 covalent inhibitor, THZ531. Co-crystallization with CDK12-cyclin K indicates that THZ531 irreversibly targets a cysteine located outside the kinase domain. THZ531 causes a loss of gene expression with concurrent loss of elongating and hyperphosphorylated RNA polymerase II. In particular, THZ531 substantially decreases the expression of DNA damage response genes and key super–enhancer–associated transcription factor genes. Coincident with transcriptional perturbation, THZ531 dramatically induced apoptotic cell death. Small molecules capable of specifically targeting CDK12 and 13 may thus help identify cancer subtypes that are particularly dependent on their kinase activities.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1038/nchembio.2166

Cites

59 of 59 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • THZ531, a bulky covalent CDK12/13 inhibitor predicted to clash with DDB1, locks the CDK12 C-terminal extension in a conformation incompatible with DDB1 recruitment.

    “THZ53124, a bulky covalent CDK12/13 inhibitor predicted to clash with DDB1 (Extended Data Fig. 6d–f), locks the CDK12 C-terminal extension in a conformation incompatible with DDB1 recruitment (Extended Data Fig. 6d).”
  • THZ531 lowered the TR-FRET signal and reduced in vitro cycK ubiquitination below DMSO control levels.

    “Consistently, THZ531 further decreased the TR-FRET signal and diminished cycK ubiquitination in vitro below DMSO control levels (Fig. 3d, Extended Data Fig. 6c, f)24.”

    From The CDK inhibitor CR8 acts as a molecular glue degrader that depletes cyclin K (2020) · cites this paper as [24]

    The ‘THZ531 covalently inhibits CDK12 and 13’ section reports kinase inhibition, and the ‘In vitro kinase assays’ section describes phosphorylation measurements, but neither reports a TR-FRET signal or cyclin K ubiquitination. Searches for TR-FRET and cyclin K ubiquitination found no passage addressing the claimed reductions relative to DMSO. Page numbers were not available in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.75)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • THZ531, a CDK12-CDK13 covalent inhibitor, binds with CDK12-cyclin K via a cysteine residue that is located outside the kinase domain.

    “THZ531, a CDK12-CDK13 covalent inhibitor, binds with CDK12-cyclin K via a cysteine residue that is located outside the kinase domain [97].”
  • THZ531 induced cell death and apoptosis in Ewing sarcoma cancer cell lines.

    “Furthermore, THZ531 induced cell death and apoptosis in Ewing sarcoma cancer cell lines.”
  • HQ461-mediated depletion of Cyclin K phenotypically mimics dual inhibition of CDK12 and CDK13 by the CDK12/13-selective inhibitor THZ531 to trigger cell death.

    “Consistent with this notion, HQ461-mediated depletion of Cyclin K phenotypically mimics dual inhibition of CDK12 and CDK13 by the CDK12/13-selective inhibitor THZ531 to trigger cell death (Zhang et al., 2016).”

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 8

  1. [39]39. Kwiatkowski N, et al. Targeting transcription regulation in cancer with a covalent CDK7 inhibitor. Nature. 2014; 511:616-620. [PubMed: 25043025]
  2. [40]40. Bosken CA, et al. The structure and substrate specificity of human Cdk12/Cyclin K. Nature communications. 2014; 5:3505.
  3. [46]46. Kabsch W. Xds. Acta crystallographica. Section D, Biological crystallography. 2010; 66:125-132. [PubMed: 20124692]
  4. [48]48. Winn MD, et al. Overview of the CCP4 suite and current developments. Acta crystallographica. Section D, Biological crystallography. 2011; 67:235-242. [PubMed: 21460441]
  5. [49]49. McCoy AJ, et al. Phaser crystallographic software. J Appl Crystallogr. 2007; 40:658-674. [PubMed: 19461840]
  6. [51]51. Murshudov GN, et al. REFMAC5 for the refinement of macromolecular crystal structures. Acta crystallographica. Section D, Biological crystallography. 2011; 67:355-367. [PubMed: 21460454]
  7. [57]57. Bartkowiak B, Greenleaf AL. Expression, purification, and identification of associated proteins of the full-length hCDK12/CyclinK complex. The Journal of biological chemistry. 2015; 290:1786- 1795. [PubMed: 25429106]
  8. [63]63. Mansour MR, et al. Oncogene regulation. An oncogenic super-enhancer formed through somatic mutation of a noncoding intergenic element. Science. 2014; 346:1373-1377. [PubMed: 25394790]

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Zhang, T., Kwiatkowski, N., Olson, C. M., Dixon-Clarke, S. E., Abraham, B. J., Greifenberg, A. K., Ficarro, S. B., Elkins, J. M., Liang, Y., Hannett, N. M., Manz, T., Hao, M., Bartkowiak, B., Greenleaf, A. L., Marto, J. A., Geyer, M., Bullock, A. N., Young, R. A., & Gray, N. S.
Affiliations
  • Harvard University (US)
  • University of Oxford (GB)
  • Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research (US)
  • University of Bonn (DE)
  • Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (US)
  • Duke Medical Center (US)
Corresponding author
  • Young, Richard A
  • Gray, Nathanael S
Venue
Nature Chemical Biology
Published
2016-08-29
Volume
12
Issue
10
Pages
876-884
ISSN
  • 1552-4450 (ISSN-L)
  • 1552-4469
OpenAlex
W2512442926
Cited by
374
References
59
Citations by year
2026: 39 · 2025: 35 · 2024: 50 · 2023: 44 · 2022: 40 · 2021: 49 · 2020: 38 · 2019: 27 · 2018: 21 · 2017: 27 · 2016: 4
FWCI
13.69
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Nature Chemical Biology (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
  • DSpace@MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc)
  • Max Planck Digital Library (submittedVersion)
  • MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion)
  • PMC
Funders
  • Eli Lilly and Company
  • Pfizer
  • GlaxoSmithKline
  • Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center
  • Genome Canada (OGI-055)
  • Wellcome Trust (106169/Z/14/Z, 092809, 106169, 092809/Z/10/Z, 1097737)
  • Diamond Light Source (mx8421, 1097737)
  • Ontario Genomics
  • Hope Funds for Cancer Research
  • Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Ontario Genomics Institute (OGI-055, 092809/Z/10/Z)
  • Ontario Ministry of Economic Development and Innovation (092809/Z/10/Z)
  • Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (GE 976/9-1)
  • Ministero dello Sviluppo Economico
  • National Institutes of Health (CA109901, CA179483)
  • Medical Research Council
  • National Human Genome Research Institute (R01HG002668)
  • National Cancer Institute (R01CA179483, P01CA109901, P30CA014051)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Protein Degradation and Inhibitors
  • Physical Sciences › Chemistry › Organic Chemistry › Synthesis and biological activity
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Genomics and Chromatin Dynamics
Keywords
CDK12, CDK13, covalent inhibitors, cyclin K, RNA polymerase II processivity, super-enhancers, DNA damage response genes, transcription factor expression, apoptosis, kinase inhibitors
MeSH terms
Anilides, Cysteine, DNA Damage, Humans, Pyrimidines, CDC2 Protein Kinase, Cell Death, Cyclin-Dependent Kinases, Protein Kinase Inhibitors

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review