Angewandte
Communications
Chemie
How to cite: Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2021, 60, 10547–10551
Drug Discovery
Selective Inhibition of the Hsp90a Isoform
Sanket J. Mishra, Anuj Khandelwal, Monimoy Banerjee, Maurie Balch, Shuxia Peng,
Rachel E. Davis, Taylor Merfeld, Vitumbiko Munthali, Junpeng Deng, Robert L. Matts, and
Abstract: The 90kDa heat shock protein (Hsp90) is a molec-
ular chaperone that processes nascent polypeptides into their
biologically active conformations. Many of these proteins
contribute to the progression of cancer, and consequently,
inhibition of the Hsp90 protein folding machinery represents
an innovative approach toward cancer chemotherapy. How-
ever, clinical trials with Hsp90 N-terminal inhibitors have
encountered deleterious side effects and toxicities, which
appear to result from the pan-inhibition of all four Hsp90
isoforms. Therefore, the development of isoform-selective
Hsp90 inhibitors is sought to delineate the pathological role
played by each isoform. Herein, we describe a structure-based
approach that was used to design the first Hsp90a-selective
inhibitors, which exhibit > 50-fold selectivity versus other
Hsp90 isoforms.
plasmic reticulum residing glucose regulated protein 94
(Grp94); and the mitochondrial isoform, tumor necrosis
factor receptor-associated protein 1 (Trap1).[1,2] Pan-inhibi-
tion of all four isoforms leads to non-specific degradation of
the entire Hsp90-dependent substrate population, and ulti-
mately leads to undesired activities.[4,9] The development of
Hsp90 isoform-selective compounds can provide a tool to
dissect the role played by each isoform towards disease
pathology and toxicities associated with pan Hsp90 inhibition.
Despite high structural similarity between the constitu-
tively expressed isoform, Hsp90b, and the inducible isoform,
Hsp90a, each of these isoforms fold select client proteins.[10]
Genetic knockdown of Hsp90a results in the degradation of
oncogenic client proteins, suggesting that the administration
of an Hsp90a-selective inhibitor could exhibit anti-cancer
activity against Hsp90a-dependent cancers.[11] In addition to
its presence in the cytosol, Hsp90a is also secreted extracell-
ularly to promote wound healing, cell adhesion, and inflam-
mation.[12] In fact, significant levels of Hsp90a are secreted
from highly invasive cancers to activate matrix metallopro-
tease 2 (MMP-2) to induce expression of MMP-3, which
drives tumor invasion.[13,14]
Extracellular Hsp90a also contributes to an inflammatory
microenvironment that supports prostate cancer progres-
sion.[14] Analysis of gene ontology traits revealed Hsp90b to
interact with a larger subset of proteins than Hsp90a.[15]
Notably, Hsp90a-dependent processes contribute to stress
adaptation or other specialized functions, while Hsp90b is
important for maintaining cell viability, clearly highlighting
the distinct evolution of each isoform.[15–17]
Initial efforts to develop isoform-selective inhibitors
focused on Grp94, due to its distinguishing structural features
that easily differentiate it from the other Hsp90 isoforms.[18–20]
However, the design of isoform-selective inhibitors against
the cytosolic isoforms, Hsp90a and Hsp90b, has been
extremely challenging as these isoforms share > 95% identity
within the N-terminal ATP-binding sites. In fact, only two
amino acids differ between these nucleotide-binding sites.
Despite these challenges, we recently disclosed KUNB 31 as
the first Hsp90b-selective inhibitor.[21] However, an isoform
selective inhibitor of Hsp90a has not yet been reported. Upon
analysis of the Hsp90 a and b N-terminal ATP-binding sites
bound to radicicol (Figure 1), it was determined that the
resorcinol moiety interacts uniquely with each Hsp90 isoform.
Compound 1 was chosen as lead molecule because it
represents an analog of AT13387, which is a resorcinol-
derived Hsp90 pan-inhibitor that underwent clinical evalua-
tion.[2] Computational studies with 1 bound to the N-terminal
ATP-binding site of Hsp90a (PDB: 2XAB) and Hsp90b
M
olecular chaperones are a class of proteins that regulate
proteostasis by assisting in the conformational maturation of
nascent polypeptides (referred to as client proteins) and the
renaturation of denatured proteins. The heat shock proteins
(Hsps) belong to a ubiquitously expressed molecular chaper-
one family that is highly conserved in eukaryotes. In fact, the
90 kDa Heat shock protein (Hsp90) is one of the most
abundant Hsps and is highly upregulated in stressed cells,
including cancer.[1,2] As a molecular chaperone, Hsp90 is
responsible for the conformational maturation of more than
300 client protein substrates, many of which are key
regulators of oncogenic transformation, growth, and meta-
stasis.[3–6] As a result, Hsp90 has been widely sought after as
a cancer target, which resulted in the development of 18
inhibitors that underwent clinical evaluation.[7,8] Unfortu-
nately, the clinical approval of these inhibitors was hindered
due to detrimental activities that are likely to result from the
inhibition of all four Hsp90 isoforms (pan-inhibitors). The
four Hsp90 isoforms include cytosolic isoforms Hsp90a
(inducible) and Hsp90b (constitutively expressed); the endo-
[*] Dr. S. J. Mishra, A. Khandelwal, Dr. M. Banerjee, R. E. Davis,
T. Merfeld, V. Munthali, Prof. Dr. B. S. J. Blagg
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
The University of Notre Dame
305 McCourtney Hall, Notre Dame, IN 46556 (USA)
E-mail: bblagg@nd.edu
Dr. M. Balch, Dr. S. Peng, Dr. J. Deng, Prof. Dr. R. L. Matts
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
246 Noble Research Center, Oklahoma State University
Stillwater, OK 74078 (USA)
Supporting information and the ORCID identification number(s) for
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2021, 60, 10547 –10551
ꢀ 2021 Wiley-VCH GmbH
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