skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: A selective WDR5 degrader inhibits acute myeloid leukemia in patient-derived mouse models

Journal Article · · Science Translational Medicine
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [1];  [1]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2];  [2];  [2];  [2]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [1];  [2];  [1]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [1]
  1. Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY (United States)
  2. Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC (United States)

Interactions between WD40 repeat domain protein 5 (WDR5) and its various partners such as mixed lineage leukemia (MLL) and c-MYC are essential for sustaining oncogenesis in human cancers. However, inhibitors that block protein-protein interactions (PPIs) between WDR5 and its binding partners exhibit modest cancer cell killing effects and lack in vivo efficacy. Here, we present pharmacological degradation of WDR5 as a promising therapeutic strategy for treating WDR5-dependent tumors and report two high-resolution crystal structures of WDR5-degrader-E3 ligase ternary complexes. We identified an effective WDR5 degrader via structure-based design and demonstrated its in vitro and in vivo antitumor activities. On the basis of the crystal structure of an initial WDR5 degrader in complex with WDR5 and the E3 ligase von Hippel–Lindau (VHL), we designed a WDR5 degrader, MS67, and demonstrated the high cooperativity of MS67 binding to WDR5 and VHL by another ternary complex structure and biophysical characterization. MS67 potently and selectively depleted WDR5 and was more effective than WDR5 PPI inhibitors in suppressing transcription of WDR5-regulated genes, decreasing the chromatin-bound fraction of MLL complex components and c-MYC, and inhibiting the proliferation of cancer cells. In addition, MS67 suppressed malignant growth of MLL-rearranged acute myeloid leukemia patient cells in vitro and in vivo and was well tolerated in vivo. Collectively, our results demonstrate that structure-based design can be an effective strategy to identify highly active degraders and suggest that pharmacological degradation of WDR5 might be a promising treatment for WDR5-dependent cancers.

Research Organization:
Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Scientific User Facilities Division
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0012704
OSTI ID:
1837161
Report Number(s):
BNL-222545-2021-JACI
Journal Information:
Science Translational Medicine, Vol. 13, Issue 613; ISSN 1946-6234
Publisher:
AAASCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (79)

COMPASS: A complex of proteins associated with a trithorax-related SET domain protein journal October 2001
The Saccharomyces cerevisiae Set1 complex includes an Ash2 homologue and methylates histone 3 lysine 4 journal December 2001
WDR5, a complexed protein journal July 2009
WD40 repeat domain proteins: a novel target class? journal October 2017
Structure of WDR5 Bound to Mixed Lineage Leukemia Protein-1 Peptide journal October 2008
A Conserved Arginine-containing Motif Crucial for the Assembly and Enzymatic Activity of the Mixed Lineage Leukemia Protein-1 Core Complex journal October 2008
Structural Basis for WDR5 Interaction (Win) Motif Recognition in Human SET1 Family Histone Methyltransferases journal June 2012
In Vivo Functional Platform Targeting Patient-Derived Xenografts Identifies WDR5-Myc Association as a Critical Determinant of Pancreatic Cancer journal June 2016
WDR5 Expression Is Prognostic of Breast Cancer Outcome journal September 2015
Upregulated WDR5 promotes proliferation, self-renewal and chemoresistance in bladder cancer via mediating H3K4 trimethylation journal February 2015
PI3K/AKT-mediated upregulation of WDR5 promotes colorectal cancer metastasis by directly targeting ZNF407 journal March 2017
TWIST1-WDR5- Hottip Regulates Hoxa9 Chromatin to Facilitate Prostate Cancer Metastasis journal May 2017
Up‐regulated WDR5 promotes gastric cancer formation by induced cyclin D1 expression journal December 2017
Overexpression of WD repeat domain 5 associates with aggressive clinicopathological features and unfavorable prognosis in head neck squamous cell carcinoma journal April 2018
WDR5 Supports an N-Myc Transcriptional Complex That Drives a Protumorigenic Gene Expression Signature in Neuroblastoma journal October 2015
Interaction of the oncoprotein transcription factor MYC with its chromatin cofactor WDR5 is essential for tumor maintenance journal November 2019
Interaction with WDR5 Promotes Target Gene Recognition and Tumorigenesis by MYC journal May 2015
Small-molecule inhibition of MLL activity by disruption of its interaction with WDR5 journal December 2012
Synthesis, Optimization, and Evaluation of Novel Small Molecules as Antagonists of WDR5-MLL Interaction journal February 2013
High-Affinity, Small-Molecule Peptidomimetic Inhibitors of MLL1/WDR5 Protein–Protein Interaction journal December 2012
Targeting MLL1 H3K4 Methyltransferase Activity in Mixed-Lineage Leukemia journal January 2014
Pharmacological targeting of the Wdr5-MLL interaction in C/EBPα N-terminal leukemia journal July 2015
Gain-of-function p53 mutants co-opt chromatin pathways to drive cancer growth journal September 2015
Structure-Based Optimization of a Small Molecule Antagonist of the Interaction Between WD Repeat-Containing Protein 5 (WDR5) and Mixed-Lineage Leukemia 1 (MLL1) journal March 2016
High-affinity small molecular blockers of mixed lineage leukemia 1 (MLL1)-WDR5 interaction inhibit MLL1 complex H3K4 methyltransferase activity journal November 2016
Discovery of a Highly Potent, Cell-Permeable Macrocyclic Peptidomimetic (MM-589) Targeting the WD Repeat Domain 5 Protein (WDR5)–Mixed Lineage Leukemia (MLL) Protein–Protein Interaction journal June 2017
Discovery of Potent 2-Aryl-6,7-dihydro-5 H -pyrrolo[1,2- a ]imidazoles as WDR5-WIN-Site Inhibitors Using Fragment-Based Methods and Structure-Based Design journal June 2018
Displacement of WDR5 from Chromatin by a WIN Site Inhibitor with Picomolar Affinity journal March 2019
Discovery and Optimization of Salicylic Acid-Derived Sulfonamide Inhibitors of the WD Repeat-Containing Protein 5–MYC Protein–Protein Interaction journal November 2019
Discovery and Structure-Based Optimization of Potent and Selective WD Repeat Domain 5 (WDR5) Inhibitors Containing a Dihydroisoquinolinone Bicyclic Core journal December 2019
Discovery of WD Repeat-Containing Protein 5 (WDR5)–MYC Inhibitors Using Fragment-Based Methods and Structure-Based Design journal March 2020
Induced protein degradation: an emerging drug discovery paradigm journal November 2016
Targeted protein degradation: expanding the toolbox journal October 2019
Advancing targeted protein degradation for cancer therapy journal June 2021
Catalytic in vivo protein knockdown by small-molecule PROTACs journal June 2015
HaloPROTACS: Use of Small Molecule PROTACs to Induce Degradation of HaloTag Fusion Proteins journal June 2015
Discovery of ARD-69 as a Highly Potent Proteolysis Targeting Chimera (PROTAC) Degrader of Androgen Receptor (AR) for the Treatment of Prostate Cancer journal January 2019
3-Fluoro-4-hydroxyprolines: Synthesis, Conformational Analysis, and Stereoselective Recognition by the VHL E3 Ubiquitin Ligase for Targeted Protein Degradation journal June 2018
Structural basis of PROTAC cooperative recognition for selective protein degradation journal March 2017
PROTAC-induced BET protein degradation as a therapy for castration-resistant prostate cancer journal June 2016
Moonlighting with WDR5: A Cellular Multitasker journal January 2018
Plasticity in binding confers selectivity in ligand-induced protein degradation journal June 2018
BAF complex vulnerabilities in cancer demonstrated via structure-based PROTAC design journal June 2019
Structure‐Based Design of a Macrocyclic PROTAC journal December 2019
Structural Insights into PROTAC-Mediated Degradation of Bcl-xL journal July 2020
Snapshots and ensembles of BTK and cIAP1 protein degrader ternary complexes journal November 2020
Discovery of Potent and Selective Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) Bifunctional Small-Molecule Degraders journal January 2020
Meis1 programs transcription of FLT3 and cancer stem cell character, using a mechanism that requires interaction with Pbx and a novel function of the Meis1 C-terminus journal July 2005
NUP98–NSD1 links H3K36 methylation to Hox-A gene activation and leukaemogenesis journal June 2007
Selective inhibition of EZH2 and EZH1 enzymatic activity by a small molecule suppresses MLL-rearranged leukemia journal January 2015
Genome engineering using the CRISPR-Cas9 system journal October 2013
Improved vectors and genome-wide libraries for CRISPR screening journal July 2014
Genome-Scale CRISPR-Cas9 Knockout Screening in Human Cells journal December 2013
iMOSFLM : a new graphical interface for diffraction-image processing with MOSFLM journal March 2011
Scaling and assessment of data quality journal December 2005
Phaser crystallographic software journal July 2007
Structure of the VHL-ElonginC-ElonginB Complex: Implications for VHL Tumor Suppressor Function journal April 1999
Structural basis for molecular recognition and presentation of histone H3 By WDR5 journal August 2006
Coot model-building tools for molecular graphics journal November 2004
PHENIX: a comprehensive Python-based system for macromolecular structure solution journal January 2010
Integrating macromolecular X-ray diffraction data with the graphical user interface iMosflm journal June 2017
PRODRG : a tool for high-throughput crystallography of protein–ligand complexes journal July 2004
Single-vector inducible lentiviral RNAi system for oncology target validation journal February 2009
An H3K36 Methylation-Engaging Tudor Motif of Polycomb-like Proteins Mediates PRC2 Complex Targeting journal February 2013
Physical Association and Coordinate Function of the H3 K4 Methyltransferase MLL1 and the H4 K16 Acetyltransferase MOF journal June 2005
Epigenetic Perturbations by Arg882-Mutated DNMT3A Potentiate Aberrant Stem Cell Gene-Expression Program and Acute Leukemia Development journal July 2016
An Alternative Approach to ChIP-Seq Normalization Enables Detection of Genome-Wide Changes in Histone H3 Lysine 27 Trimethylation upon EZH2 Inhibition journal November 2016
Fast and accurate long-read alignment with Burrows–Wheeler transform journal January 2010
Model-based Analysis of ChIP-Seq (MACS) journal January 2008
A User's Guide to the Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) journal April 2011
BAHCC1 binds H3K27me3 via a conserved BAH module to mediate gene silencing and oncogenesis journal November 2020
PHF19 promotes multiple myeloma tumorigenicity through PRC2 activation and broad H3K27me3 domain formation journal August 2019
ZFX Mediates Non-canonical Oncogenic Functions of the Androgen Receptor Splice Variant 7 in Castrate-Resistant Prostate Cancer journal October 2018
MapSplice: Accurate mapping of RNA-seq reads for splice junction discovery journal August 2010
RSEM: accurate transcript quantification from RNA-Seq data with or without a reference genome journal August 2011
Differential expression analysis for sequence count data journal October 2010
Gene set enrichment analysis: A knowledge-based approach for interpreting genome-wide expression profiles journal September 2005
The Public Repository of Xenografts Enables Discovery and Randomized Phase II-like Trials in Mice journal April 2016
Genomic impact of transient low-dose decitabine treatment on primary AML cells journal February 2013

Similar Records

Discovery and Structure-Based Optimization of Potent and Selective WD Repeat Domain 5 (WDR5) Inhibitors Containing a Dihydroisoquinolinone Bicyclic Core
Journal Article · Fri Dec 20 00:00:00 EST 2019 · Journal of Medicinal Chemistry · OSTI ID:1837161

Induced protein degradation of anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) by proteolysis targeting chimera (PROTAC)
Journal Article · Mon Oct 15 00:00:00 EDT 2018 · Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications · OSTI ID:1837161

Wogonin inhibits tumor angiogenesis via degradation of HIF-1α protein
Journal Article · Sun Sep 01 00:00:00 EDT 2013 · Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology · OSTI ID:1837161

Related Subjects