TY - JOUR
T1 - Geldanamycin-derived HSP90 inhibitors are synthetic lethal with NRF2
AU - Baird, Liam
AU - Suzuki, Takafumi
AU - Takahashi, Yushi
AU - Hishinuma, Eiji
AU - Saigusa, Daisuke
AU - Yamamoto, Masayuki
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was partially supported by the Platform Project for Supporting Drug Discovery and Life Science Research (Basis for Supporting Innovative Drug Discovery and Life Science Research [BINDS]) from AMED under grant number JP17am0101001 (support number 1234), AMED-P-CREATE (JP19cm0106101 to M.Y.), JSPS KAKENHI 19H05649 (to M.Y.), and JSPS KAKENHI Grants-in-Aid for Early Career Scientists 19K16512 (to L.B.).
Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2020 American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
PY - 2020/11
Y1 - 2020/11
N2 - Activating mutations in KEAP1-NRF2 are frequently found in tumors of the lung, esophagus, and liver, where they are associated with aggressive growth, resistance to cancer therapies, and low overall survival. Despite the fact that NRF2 is a validated driver of tumorigenesis and chemotherapeutic resistance, there are currently no approved drugs which can inhibit its activity. Therefore, there is an urgent clinical need to identify NRF2-selective cancer therapies. To this end, we developed a novel synthetic lethal assay, based on fluorescently labeled isogenic wild-type and Keap1 knockout cell lines, in order to screen for compounds which selectively kill cells in an NRF2-dependent manner. Through this approach, we identified three compounds based on the geldanamycin scaffold which display synthetic lethality with NRF2. Mechanistically, we show that products of NRF2 target genes metabolize the quinone-containing geldanamycin compounds into more potent HSP90 inhibitors, which enhances their cytotoxicity while simultaneously restricting the synthetic lethal effect to cells with aberrant NRF2 activity. As all three of the geldanamycin-derived compounds have been used in clinical trials, they represent ideal candidates for drug repositioning to target the currently untreatable NRF2 activity in cancer.
AB - Activating mutations in KEAP1-NRF2 are frequently found in tumors of the lung, esophagus, and liver, where they are associated with aggressive growth, resistance to cancer therapies, and low overall survival. Despite the fact that NRF2 is a validated driver of tumorigenesis and chemotherapeutic resistance, there are currently no approved drugs which can inhibit its activity. Therefore, there is an urgent clinical need to identify NRF2-selective cancer therapies. To this end, we developed a novel synthetic lethal assay, based on fluorescently labeled isogenic wild-type and Keap1 knockout cell lines, in order to screen for compounds which selectively kill cells in an NRF2-dependent manner. Through this approach, we identified three compounds based on the geldanamycin scaffold which display synthetic lethality with NRF2. Mechanistically, we show that products of NRF2 target genes metabolize the quinone-containing geldanamycin compounds into more potent HSP90 inhibitors, which enhances their cytotoxicity while simultaneously restricting the synthetic lethal effect to cells with aberrant NRF2 activity. As all three of the geldanamycin-derived compounds have been used in clinical trials, they represent ideal candidates for drug repositioning to target the currently untreatable NRF2 activity in cancer.
KW - Cancer
KW - KEAP1
KW - NRF2
KW - Nfe2l2
KW - Oxidative stress
KW - Synthetic lethal
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U2 - 10.1128/MCB.00377-20
DO - 10.1128/MCB.00377-20
M3 - Article
C2 - 32868290
AN - SCOPUS:85094932695
VL - 40
JO - Molecular and Cellular Biology
JF - Molecular and Cellular Biology
SN - 0270-7306
IS - 22
M1 - e0037720
ER -