ChemBioChem
10.1002/cbic.201600427
COMMUNICATION
applied erlotinib SF analogue 32 to assessing drug-target
engagement in live cells (Figure 1). A crystal structure of
erlotinib with its primary target, epidermal growth factor receptor
(EGFR, PDB 1M17),18 highlighted the proximity of the conserved
lysine to the 4-position of the erlotinib aniline ring (Figure 1a).
We thus anticipated that, of the two isomeric SF erlotinib
analogues prepared, the 1,3,4-substituted isomer 32 would best
position the SF for chemical labelling of the conserved lysine
residue in the ATP-binding site of the EGFR protein, in a manner
similar to other SF-containing kinase inhibitors (e.g., 1).4,19 As
expected, intact mass spectrometry studies showed that 32
labelled EGFR (Figure 1b), and the extent of labelling was
significantly higher than that seen for the 1,3,5-substituted
isomer 33. Peptide mapping experiments confirmed the site of
labelling as the conserved Lys745 (Supporting Information). Also,
as determined by ELISA in non-small cell lung cancer H3255
cells, both 32 and 33 exhibited significant inhibition of EGFR
cellular autophosphorylation at Tyr1068 (IC50 = 116 and 74 nM
respectively). With these encouraging results, we next explored
the ability of 32 to report on live cell target engagement.
Treatment of H3255 cells with 32, followed by cell lysis,
subsequent attachment of biotin azide, and streptavidin-
mediated enrichment followed by Western blot, showed that the
probe labelled EGFR in live cells (Figure 1c). Specificity was
confirmed by competing the labelling with parent erlotinib in a
concentration-dependent manner, thus confirming the utility of
32 as an in-cell target occupancy probe.
transformations that can be carried out in the presence of SF.18
We used representative compounds from the monomer set to
prepare clickable SF analogues of known drugs or drug
candidates, thus illustrating their potential for application in “real
world” situations. Further showing utility, as previously disclosed,
D153259 analogue 23 (prepared in improved overall yield from
monomer 7-o), and, as presented here, erlotinib analogue 32
(prepared from amine monomer 6-o) have been employed as
chemical probes for measuring target occupancy in live cells.
We continue to define the scope of sulfonyl fluoride-sparing
chemical transformations as applied to a range of substrates
and to develop new monomers and chemistries for SF chemical
biology probe synthesis. Assessment of the broader proteome
reactivity of 32 is a subject of ongoing work in our group.
Experimental Section
See Supporting Information.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank Christopher AmEnde and Paramita
Mukherjee for their support and helpful dicussions.
Keywords: chemical biology • click chemistry • medicinal
chemistry • proteomics • sulfonyl fluoride
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Figure 1. a) Design of sulfonyl fluoride, clickable EGFR probe 32 based on the
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