1. Academic Validation
  2. Discovery of First-in-Class Protein Arginine Methyltransferase 5 (PRMT5) Degraders

Discovery of First-in-Class Protein Arginine Methyltransferase 5 (PRMT5) Degraders

  • J Med Chem. 2020 Sep 10;63(17):9977-9989. doi: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.0c01111.
Yudao Shen 1 Guozhen Gao 2 Xufen Yu 1 Huensuk Kim 1 Li Wang 3 Ling Xie 3 Megan Schwarz 1 Xian Chen 3 Ernesto Guccione 1 Jing Liu 1 Mark T Bedford 2 Jian Jin 1
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Mount Sinai Center for Therapeutics Discovery, Departments of Pharmacological Sciences and Oncological Sciences, Tisch Cancer Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York 10029, United States.
  • 2 Department of Epigenetics and Molecular Carcinogenesis, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Smithville, Texas 78957, United States.
  • 3 Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, United States.
Abstract

The aberrant expression of protein arginine methyltransferase 5 (PRMT5) has been associated with multiple cancers. Using the proteolysis targeting chimera technology, we discovered a first-in-class PRMT5 degrader 15 (MS4322). Here, we report the design, synthesis, and characterization of compound 15 and two structurally similar controls 17 (MS4370) and 21 (MS4369), with impaired binding to the von Hippel-Lindau E3 ligase and PRMT5, respectively. Compound 15, but not 17 and 21, effectively reduced the PRMT5 protein level in MCF-7 cells. Our mechanism studies indicate that compound 15 degraded PRMT5 in an E3 ligase- and proteasome-dependent manner. Compound 15 also effectively reduced the PRMT5 protein level and inhibited growth in multiple Cancer cell lines. Moreover, compound 15 was highly selective for PRMT5 in a global proteomic study and exhibited good plasma exposure in mice. Collectively, compound 15 and its two controls 17 and 21 are valuable chemical tools for exploring the PRMT5 functions in health and disease.

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