Validation of a New Methodology to Create Oral Drugs beyond the Rule of 5 for Intracellular Tough Targets

J Am Chem Soc. 2023 Nov 8;145(44):24035-24051. doi: 10.1021/jacs.3c07145. Epub 2023 Oct 24.

Abstract

Establishing a technological platform for creating clinical compounds inhibiting intracellular protein-protein interactions (PPIs) can open the door to many valuable drugs. Although small molecules and antibodies are mainstream modalities, they are not suitable for a target protein that lacks a deep cavity for a small molecule to bind or a protein found in intracellular space out of an antibody's reach. One possible approach to access these targets is to utilize so-called middle-size cyclic peptides (defined here as those with a molecular weight of 1000-2000 g/mol). In this study, we validated a new methodology to create oral drugs beyond the rule of 5 for intracellular tough targets by elucidating structural features and physicochemical properties for drug-like cyclic peptides and developing library technologies to afford highly N-alkylated cyclic peptide hits. We discovered a KRAS inhibitory clinical compound (LUNA18) as the first example of our platform technology.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Peptides, Cyclic* / chemistry

Substances

  • Peptides, Cyclic