Edward P Harvey, Zachary J Hauseman, Daniel T Cohen, T Justin Rettenmaier, Susan Lee, Annissa J Huhn, Thomas E Wales, Hyuk-Soo Seo, James Luccarelli, Catherine E Newman, Rachel M Guerra, Gregory H Bird, Sirano Dhe-Paganon, John R Engen, James A Wells, Loren D Walensky
The BCL-2 family is composed of anti- and pro-apoptotic members that respectively protect or disrupt mitochondrial integrity. Anti-apoptotic overexpression can promote oncogenesis by trapping the BCL-2 homology 3 (BH3) "killer domains" of pro-apoptotic proteins in a surface groove, blocking apoptosis. Groove inhibitors, such as the relatively large BCL-2 drug venetoclax (868 Da), have emerged as cancer therapies. BFL-1 remains an undrugged oncogenic protein and can cause venetoclax resistance. Having identified a unique C55 residue in the BFL-1 groove, we performed a disulfide tethering screen to determine if C55 reactivity could enable smaller molecules to block BFL-1's BH3-binding functionality...
June 18, 2020: Cell Chemical Biology