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Development of a BCL-xL and BCL-2 dual degrader with improved anti-leukemic activity,
Open accessAbstract
PROteolysis-TArgeting Chimeras (PROTACs) have emerged as an innovative drug development platform. However, most PROTACs have been generated empirically because many determinants of PROTAC specificity and activity remain elusive. Through computational modelling of the entire NEDD8-VHL Cullin RING E3 ubiquitin ligase (CRL VHL )/PROTAC/BCL-xL/UbcH5B(E2)-Ub/RBX1 complex, we find that this complex can only ubiquitinate the lysines in a defined band region on BCL-xL. Using this approach to guide our development of a series of ABT263-derived and VHL-recruiting PROTACs, we generate a potent BCL-xL and BCL-2 (BCL-xL/2) dual degrader with significantly improved antitumor activity against BCL-xL/2-dependent leukemia cells. Our results provide experimental evidence that the accessibility of lysines on a target protein plays an important role in determining the selectivity and potency of a PROTAC in inducing protein degradation, which may serve as a conceptual framework to guide the future development of PROTACs.
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“Finally, 753b (203) displayed high selectivity for cancer cells over normal platelets and a lower toxicity profile, making it a promising candidate for future cancer therapy (Table 4).495”
From Recent advances in targeting the “undruggable” proteins: from drug discovery to clinical trials (2023) · cites this paper as [495]
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“Moreover, some recent studies have shown that only the ternary complex models with optimal target-lysine accessibility for the E2 could predict target degradation outcomes.[181][182][183]”
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Metadata
- Authors
- Lv, D., Pal, P., Liu, X., Jia, Y., Thummuri, D., Zhang, P., Hu, W., Pei, J., Zhang, Q., Zhou, S., Khan, S., Zhang, X., Hua, N., Yang, Q., Arango, S., Zhang, W., Nayak, D., Olsen, S. K., Weintraub, S. T., Hromas, R., Konopleva, M., Yuan, Y., Zheng, G., & Zhou, D.
- Affiliations
- University of Florida (US)
- The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (US)
- The University of Texas at San Antonio Health Science Center (US)
- Corresponding author
- Yuan, Yaxia
- Zheng, Guangrong
- Zhou, Daohong
- ORCID
- Venue
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2021-11-25
- Volume
- 12
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 6896-6896
- ISSN
- 2041-1723 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC8617031
- OpenAlex
- W3215130076
- Cited by
- 158
- References
- 55
- Citations by year
- 2026: 27 · 2025: 38 · 2024: 41 · 2023: 22 · 2022: 30
- FWCI
- 7.30
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- Nature Communications (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | National Institutes of Health (R01 CA241191, R01 AG063801, R01 CA205224, R01 GM115568, R01 GM128731, R01 CA200673, R01 CA203834)
- Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (RR200030)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Protein Degradation and Inhibitors
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Ubiquitin and proteasome pathways
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Cell death mechanisms and regulation
- Keywords
- PROTACs, Bcl-xL, Bcl-2, UbcH5b, RBX1, ubiquitination, navitoclax, leukemia, protein degradation
- MeSH terms
- Antineoplastic Agents, Cell Line, Cell Survival, Humans, Leukemia, Lysine, Models, Molecular, Protein Binding, Protein Conformation, Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2, Ubiquitin-Conjugating Enzymes, Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases, Proteasome Endopeptidase Complex, bcl-X Protein, Von Hippel-Lindau Tumor Suppressor Protein, Small Molecule Libraries, Ubiquitination, Proteolysis
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