1. Academic Validation
  2. Development of an orally bioavailable CDK12/13 degrader and induction of synthetic lethality with AKT pathway inhibition

Development of an orally bioavailable CDK12/13 degrader and induction of synthetic lethality with AKT pathway inhibition

  • Cell Rep Med. 2024 Oct 15;5(10):101752. doi: 10.1016/j.xcrm.2024.101752.
Yu Chang 1 Xiaoju Wang 2 Jianzhang Yang 3 Jean Ching-Yi Tien 1 Rahul Mannan 1 Gabriel Cruz 1 Yuping Zhang 1 Josh N Vo 1 Brian Magnuson 1 Somnath Mahapatra 1 Hanbyul Cho 1 Saravana Mohan Dhanasekaran 2 Cynthia Wang 1 Zhen Wang 4 Licheng Zhou 3 Kaijie Zhou 4 Yang Zhou 5 Pujuan Zhang 4 Weixue Huang 4 Lanbo Xiao 1 Weihuang Raymond Liu 6 Rudana Hamadeh 6 Fengyun Su 1 Rui Wang 1 Stephanie J Miner 1 Xuhong Cao 7 Yunhui Cheng 1 Rohit Mehra 8 Ke Ding 9 Arul M Chinnaiyan 10
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Michigan Center for Translational Pathology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA; Department of Pathology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
  • 2 Michigan Center for Translational Pathology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA; Department of Pathology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA; Rogel Cancer Center, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
  • 3 State Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology, Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200032, People's Republic of China; School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Jinan University, Guangzhou 511436, People's Republic of China.
  • 4 State Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology, Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200032, People's Republic of China.
  • 5 School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Jinan University, Guangzhou 511436, People's Republic of China.
  • 6 Michigan Center for Translational Pathology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
  • 7 Michigan Center for Translational Pathology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA; Department of Pathology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA; Rogel Cancer Center, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
  • 8 Michigan Center for Translational Pathology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA; Department of Pathology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA; Rogel Cancer Center, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA; Department of Urology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
  • 9 State Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology, Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200032, People's Republic of China. Electronic address: dingk@sioc.ac.cn.
  • 10 Michigan Center for Translational Pathology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA; Department of Pathology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA; Rogel Cancer Center, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA; Department of Urology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA. Electronic address: arul@umich.edu.
Abstract

Cyclin-dependent kinases 12/13 play pivotal roles in orchestrating transcription elongation, DNA damage response, and maintenance of genomic stability. Biallelic CDK12 loss has been documented in various malignancies. Here, we develop a selective CDK12/13 PROTAC degrader, YJ9069, which effectively inhibits proliferation in subsets of prostate Cancer cells preferentially over benign immortalized cells. CDK12/13 degradation rapidly triggers gene-length-dependent transcriptional elongation defects, leading to DNA damage and cell-cycle arrest. In vivo, YJ9069 significantly suppresses prostate tumor growth. Modifications of YJ9069 yielded an orally bioavailable CDK12/13 degrader, YJ1206, which exhibits comparable efficacy with significantly less toxicity. To identify pathways synthetically lethal upon CDK12/13 degradation, phosphorylation pathway arrays were performed using cell lines treated with YJ1206. Interestingly, degradation or genetic knockdown of CDK12/13 led to activation of the Akt pathway. Targeting CDK12/13 for degradation, in conjunction with inhibiting the Akt pathway, resulted in a synthetic lethal effect in preclinical prostate Cancer Models.

Keywords

AKT; AKT inhibitors; CDK12; CDK13; PROTAC; prostate cancer; proteolysis targeting chimera; synthetic lethality.

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