Abstract 3429: Beyond cereblon IMIDs - biophysics-based discovery of novel molecular glue chemotypes

Abstract

Abstract Molecular glue degraders are compact, low molecular weight molecules that can efficiently induce specific and potent degradation of a target protein. This class of degraders function by inducing interactions between a target of interest and a ubiquitin-ligase, either by stabilization of weak pre-existing interactions, or by generation of entirely novel interactions. These molecules offer significant opportunity beyond heterobifunctional degraders such as PROTACs, not least in terms of improved molecular properties. However, beyond the IMID molecular glues, typified by thalidomide, pomalidomide and lenalidomide, novel molecular glue chemotypes remain scarce. To address this need, we have developed biophysics-based molecular glue screening platform, exploiting our internal, high quality fragment library and proximity-based screening platforms to rapidly identify promising new molecular glues for further optimization. A potential advantage of utilizing cell-free biophysical systems is the opportunity to select both the target and the desired ligase, opening up for development of degraders that capitalize upon differential expression of ligases in different tissues. As proof of concept, we have applied this platform to find new molecular glues to degrade CK1α. This Ser/Thr kinase has been found to be over-expressed in metastatic colorectal cancer, and this over-expression correlates with poor overall survival. The kinase has also been implicated as an oncogenic driver in tumors such as B-Cell lymphomas and non-Hodgkin lymphomas, suggesting a potential therapeutic application for novel CK1α molecular glues. Utilizing known IMID-derived molecular glues between CK1α and CRBN as benchmark controls, we identified several non-IMID derived chemotypes as tentative stabilizers of the CRBN/CK1α interaction. Further studies on these novel candidate degrader templates are now underway. Citation Format: Yujia Zhang, Jessica Bates, Benoit Gourdet, Louise Birch, Philip Addis, Roland Hjerpe, Allan M. Jordan. Beyond cereblon IMIDs - biophysics-based discovery of novel molecular glue chemotypes [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2023; Part 1 (Regular and Invited Abstracts); 2023 Apr 14-19; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2023;83(7_Suppl):Abstract nr 3429.