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A small-molecule inhibitor of the ubiquitin activating enzyme for cancer treatment

Abstract

The ubiquitin–proteasome system (UPS) comprises a network of enzymes that is responsible for maintaining cellular protein homeostasis. The therapeutic potential of this pathway has been validated by the clinical successes of a number of UPS modulators, including proteasome inhibitors and immunomodulatory imide drugs (IMiDs). Here we identified TAK-243 (formerly known as MLN7243) as a potent, mechanism-based small-molecule inhibitor of the ubiquitin activating enzyme (UAE), the primary mammalian E1 enzyme that regulates the ubiquitin conjugation cascade. TAK-243 treatment caused depletion of cellular ubiquitin conjugates, resulting in disruption of signaling events, induction of proteotoxic stress, and impairment of cell cycle progression and DNA damage repair pathways. TAK-243 treatment caused death of cancer cells and, in primary human xenograft studies, demonstrated antitumor activity at tolerated doses. Due to its specificity and potency, TAK-243 allows for interrogation of ubiquitin biology and for assessment of UAE inhibition as a new approach for cancer treatment.

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Figure 1: TAK-243 is a mechanism-based, cell-active inhibitor of UAE.
Figure 2: TAK-243 inhibits cellular ubiquitin conjugation, which leads to substrate stabilization, cell cycle arrest, ER stress and an impaired DNA damage response.
Figure 3: TAK-243 induces a pharmacodynamic (PD) response in xenograft tumors.
Figure 4: TAK-243 treatment has antitumor activity in mice bearing subcutaneous xenograft tumors.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank W. Harper (Harvard Medical School) for the UBA6-knockout and control MEFs, A. Berger for critical review of the manuscript, and E. Koenig and P. Shah for genomic data analysis. We would also like to thank J. Afroze, I. Bharathan, J. Gaulin, M. Girad, C. McIntyre, F. Soucy, T.T. Wong and Y. Ye for performing the chemical synthesis of TAK-243. All activities were completed and funded through Takeda Pharmaceuticals Inc.

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Contributions

M.L.H., M.A.M., N.F.B., B.S.A., J.G. and L.R.D. participated in writing, reviewing and editing of the manuscript; M.L.H., M.A.M. and N.F.B. participated in the planning, initiation, data generation and analysis of biological experiments; J.C., S.L. and P.F. participated in the planning, initiation, design and execution of chemical synthesis; M.S. and N.B. performed crystallography experiments; J.P. was the toxicology representative on the program; J.G., T.S., F.B. and J.B. performed biochemical analyses; M.A.M., D.S., J.D., C.R., J.R. and K.H. performed in vitro cell culture experiments; M.L.H., T.T., J.H., J.S. and S.M.P. performed in vivo antitumor activity and pharmacodynamic experiments; A.L. and S.M. evaluated compound potencies in cell-based assays; Y.Y. and B.S. performed immunohistochemistry experiments; R.G. performed pharmacokinetic analyses; B.S.A., S.T., M.K., P.V., J.N., P.L., J.T.W., P.G., K.G., M.M. and C.C. provided project oversight and review.

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Correspondence to Michael A Milhollen.

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All of the authors were employees of Takeda Pharmaceuticals at the time of these studies.

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Supplementary Figures & Tables

Supplementary Figures 1–16 & Supplementary Tables 1, 3 (PDF 5164 kb)

Life Sciences Reporting Summary (PDF 208 kb)

Supplementary Table 2

Selectivity profiling of TAK-243 against kinases, cellular receptors (Novascreen) and carbonic anhydrases. (XLSX 30 kb)

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Hyer, M., Milhollen, M., Ciavarri, J. et al. A small-molecule inhibitor of the ubiquitin activating enzyme for cancer treatment. Nat Med 24, 186–193 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.4474

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