Stabilizing and destabilizing SOS1-RAS interactions

Last week we highlighted an example of fragments stabilizing a protein-protein interaction. This week continues the theme, with a paper published in Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA by Roman Hillig, Benjamin Bader, and colleagues at Bayer.

The protein of interest was KRAS, inhibitors of which have long been sought as anti-cancer agents (see here and here for previous fragment efforts). KRAS binding to GTP activates cell survival and proliferation pathways. Guanine nucleotide exchange factors (GEFs) such as the proteins SOS1 and SOS2 facilitate the exchange of GDP for GTP. While inhibitors of this interaction would seem an obvious goal, other researchers had discovered molecules that stabilize the interaction, so the team looked for these too.

An STD-NMR screen of 3000 fragments (in pools of 8, each at 200 µM) yielded 310 hits, of which 97 bound to the complex of a mutant form of KRAS (G12C) and SOS1, but not to either isolated protein. Crystallography was attempted on 42 of these molecules, resulting in 13 structures. All compounds bound in a small hydrophobic pocket on SOS1, near where KRAS binds. Interestingly, two of these, including compound F1, stabilized the interaction between KRAS and SOS1, as assessed by 2-dimensional protein-observed NMR, SPR, and a biochemical assay. The remaining fragments bound to the complex but neither stabilized nor destabilized it. Unfortunately, efforts to improve the affinity of F1 proved unsuccessful.

Meanwhile, the researchers conducted an HTS screen of more than 3 million molecules, which they validated in a variety of biochemical and biophysical assays. Compound 1 passed all of them, and crystallography revealed that the naphthyl moiety binds in the same hydrophobic pocket of SOS1 as compound F1. Unlike the fragment, however, compound 1 inhibits the interaction of KRAS^G12C and SOS1. Structural analysis suggests that this is in part steric: one of the methoxy groups would clash with KRAS. Also, binding of compound 1 causes a conformation change in a critical tyrosine side chain of SOS1 that normally interacts with KRAS. Interestingly, the fragment F1 also interacts with this residue, but enforces a conformation similar to what it adopts when bound to KRAS, thus explaining the stabilization of the complex caused by F1.

Those of you who have worked on kinases will immediately recognize the quinazoline core of compound 1, and indeed this molecule inhibits kinases such as EGFR with nanomolar potency. This activity would make cell assays difficult to interpret, so the researchers added a methyl group to prevent interaction with the hinge region of kinases. Other changes improved the solubility, but only marginally improved the affinity of the best molecule, compound 17.

With two separate series, both of which bind in the same region, the researchers tried merging F1 and compound 17, ultimately leading to BAY-293, with low nanomolar affinity as assessed by isothermal titration calorimetry and functional activity in disrupting the KRAS-SOS1 interaction. Crystallography confirmed that the molecule binds as designed, with the amine group from F1 making similar interactions. BAY-293 was also active in a variety of cell-based assays, and should be a good chemical probe for better understanding the complexities of KRAS signaling.

Superficially BAY-293 bears more resemblance to its HTS parent than its fragment parent, and perhaps this story is best described as an example of fragment-assisted drug discovery. It is also a nice reminder that sometimes subtle chemical changes can make the difference between activation, disruption, or simple binding with no functional activity.