Cited by 1,760Protein Degradation and InhibitorsUbiquitin and proteasome pathwaysChemical Synthesis and Analysis

Phthalimide conjugation as a strategy for in vivo target protein degradation

Open access
Winter, Georg E., Buckley, Dennis L., Paulk, Joshiawa, Roberts, Justin M., Souza, Amanda, Dhe-Paganon, Sirano, Bradner, James E.·2015·Science

Abstract

The development of effective pharmacological inhibitors of multidomain scaffold proteins, notably transcription factors, is a particularly challenging problem. In part, this is because many small-molecule antagonists disrupt the activity of only one domain in the target protein. We devised a chemical strategy that promotes ligand-dependent target protein degradation using as an example the transcriptional coactivator BRD4, a protein critical for cancer cell growth and survival. We appended a competitive antagonist of BET bromodomains to a phthalimide moiety to hijack the cereblon E3 ubiquitin ligase complex. The resultant compound, dBET1, induced highly selective cereblon-dependent BET protein degradation in vitro and in vivo and delayed leukemia progression in mice. A second series of probes resulted in selective degradation of the cytosolic protein FKBP12. This chemical strategy for controlling target protein stability may have implications for therapeutically targeting previously intractable proteins.

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 · 10.1126/science.aab1433

Cites

38 of 38 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?

  • dBET1 recruited CRBN to induce rapid and selective degradation of BRD2, BRD3 and BRD4.

    “By conjugating JQ1 to a thalidomide derivative, dBet1 successfully recruited cRBN to induce rapid and selective degradation of BRD2, BRD3 and BRD4.”

    From From serendipity to strategy: molecular glue degraders in cancer therapeutics (2025) · cites this paper as Winter et al. 2015

  • The majority of degraders recruit the CRL4crbn or CRL2vhl E3 ligases to ubiquitinate a protein of interest.

    “The majority of degraders recruit the CUL4-RBX1-DDB1-CRBN (CRL4crbn) (Ito et al., 2010; Kronke et al., 2014; Winter et al., 2015), or CUL2-RBX1-ElonginB-ElonginC-VHL (CRL2vhl) (Buckley et al., 2012; Galdeano et al., 2014) E3 ligases to ubiquitinate a POI.”
  • Degraders result in loss of both enzymatic and non-enzymatic functions of proteins, such as the scaffolding function of kinases or the gene regulatory functions of transcriptional effectors.

    “Degraders result in loss of both enzymatic and non-enzymatic functions of proteins, such as the scaffolding function of kinases (Cromm et al., 2018), or the gene regulatory functions of transcriptional effectors (Winter et al., 2015).”
  • The inhibition of BET proteins with small molecule inhibitors is relatively well tolerated than their degradation with PROTAC dBET1.

    “the inhibition of BET proteins with SMIs is relatively well tolerated than their degradation with PROTAC dBET1 [25].”
  • PROTACs consisting of pomalidomide and OTX015 or JQ1 resulted in robust BRD4 degradation at low nanomolar concentrations.

    “PROTACs consisting of pomalidomide and OTX015 [84] or JQ1 [85] resulted in robust BRD4 degradation when used at low nanomolar concentrations [84, 85].”

    From Advances in targeted degradation of endogenous proteins (2019) · cites this paper as [85]

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

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Winter, G. E., Buckley, D. L., Paulk, J., Roberts, J. M., Souza, A., Dhe-Paganon, S., & Bradner, J. E.
Affiliations
  • Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (US)
  • Department of Cancer Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
  • Harvard University (US)
Corresponding author
  • Winter, Georg E.
  • Buckley, Dennis L.
  • Bradner, James E.
Venue
Science
Published
2015-06-19
Volume
348
Issue
6241
Pages
1376-1381
ISSN
  • 0036-8075 (ISSN-L)
  • 1095-9203
OpenAlex
W1565539350
Cited by
1,760
References
38
Citations by year
2026: 145 · 2025: 191 · 2024: 200 · 2023: 157 · 2022: 189 · 2021: 203 · 2020: 206 · 2019: 161 · 2018: 110 · 2017: 116 · 2016: 59 · 2015: 19 · 2014: 1
FWCI
44.41
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Science (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
  • NIH (R01-CA176745, P01-CA066996)
  • Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation (DRG-2196-14)
  • Marc Cohen and Alain Cohen
  • William Lawrence and Blanche Hughes Foundation
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 › Chemical Synthesis and Analysis
Keywords
BRD4, FKBP12, transcriptional coactivator, transcription factor inhibitors, leukemia, protein stability, small molecule antagonists
MeSH terms
Bromodomain Containing Proteins, Animals, Azepines, Disease Models, Animal, Ligands, Nuclear Proteins, Peptide Hydrolases, Phthalimides, Thalidomide, Transcription Factors, Drug Design, Leukemia, Promyelocytic, Acute, Protein Structure, Tertiary, Crystallography, X-Ray, Cell Cycle Proteins, Tacrolimus Binding Protein 1A, Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases, Cell Line, Tumor, Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing, Mice, Protein Stability, Molecular Targeted Therapy, Proteolysis

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