Abstract B142: Discovery of novel and potent TEAD inhibitors, orally available small molecules with anti-tumor activity in hippo pathway- dysregulated cancers

Abstract

Abstract Hippo pathway plays a critical role in cell apoptosis, proliferation, tissue homeostasis. Dysregulation of Hippo pathway was reported to related to overall aspects of tumorigenesis. The higher expression a YAP/TAZ and TEADs or mutation of core components of hippo pathway, such as NF2, MST1/2 and LATS1/2 were reported in various cancer subtypes including mesothelioma, meningioma, glioblastoma, non-small cell lung cancer. TEAD auto-palmitoylation is required for protein stability and its transcriptional activity. Inhibiting TEAD activity regulation present attractive strategy for therapeutic intervention in the Hippo pathway. There are increasing proof that the inhibitor to central pocket of TEAD can be promising candidate for cancer treatment. We validated and optimized the hits, derived from our in silico screening system. Our lead compounds inhibiting palmitoylation of TEADs are the potent in vitro activities in TEAD reporter assay and hippo pathway-dysregulated mesotheliomas. In addition, these compounds reduced the expression of TEAD target genes. Furthermore, our compounds strongly inhibited tumor growth in NF2 deficient mouse xenograft model without any adverse events. In these models, our compounds showed excellent PK-PD correlation. Using these compounds, we also tested the possibility as therapy for combination drugs with KRAS inhibitor, EGFR inhibitors. In summary, we have potent TEAD inhibitor series, that showed inhibitory activities of tumor growth in NF2 deficient in vivo models, and may have therapeutic potential in diverse solid tumors. Citation Format: Sungho Moon, Seon Yeon Cho, Minhye Kim, Soojeong Beak, Jinhyuk Kim, Yongchan Kim, Sungil Park, Jung-In Kim, Hanseong Kim, In Sang Lee, Kyoung Tai No. Discovery of novel and potent TEAD inhibitors, orally available small molecules with anti-tumor activity in hippo pathway- dysregulated cancers [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR-NCI-EORTC Virtual International Conference on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics; 2023 Oct 11-15; Boston, MA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Mol Cancer Ther 2023;22(12 Suppl):Abstract nr B142.