1. Development of the nonreceptor tyrosine kinase FER-targeting PROTACs as a potential strategy for antagonizing ovarian cancer cell motility and invasiveness.
- Author
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Zhang Y, Xiong X, Sun R, Zhu X, Wang C, Jiang B, Yang X, Li D, and Fan G
- Subjects
- Humans, Female, Proteolysis Targeting Chimera, Proteins metabolism, Cell Movement, Proteolysis, Protein-Tyrosine Kinases metabolism, Ovarian Neoplasms drug therapy
- Abstract
Aberrant overexpression of nonreceptor tyrosine kinase FER (Fps/Fes Related) has been reported in various ovarian carcinoma-derived tumor cells and is a poor prognosis factor for patient survival. It plays an essential role in tumor cell migration and invasion, acting concurrently in both kinase-dependent and -independent manners, which is not easily suppressed by conventional enzymatic inhibitors. Nevertheless, the PROteolysis-TArgeting Chimera (PROTAC) technology offers superior efficacy over traditional activity-based inhibitors by simultaneously targeting enzymatic and scaffold functions. Hence in this study, we report the development of two PROTAC compounds that promote robust FER degradation in a cereblon-dependent manner. Both PROTAC degraders outperform a Food and Drug Administration-approved drug, brigatinib, in ovarian cancer cell motility suppression. Importantly, these PROTAC compounds also degrade multiple oncogenic FER fusion proteins identified in human tumor samples. These results lay an experimental foundation to apply the PROTAC strategy to antagonize cell motility and invasiveness in ovarian and other types of cancers with aberrant expression of FER kinase and highlight PROTACs as a superior strategy for targeting proteins with multiple tumor-promoting functions., Competing Interests: Conflict of interest The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest with the contents of this article., (Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)
- Published
- 2023
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