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Selective Degradation of Polo‐like Kinase 1 by a Hydrophobically Tagged Inhibitor of the Polo‐Box Domain
Author(s) -
Rubner Stefan,
Scharow Andrej,
Schubert Sabine,
Berg Thorsten
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
angewandte chemie international edition
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.831
H-Index - 550
eISSN - 1521-3773
pISSN - 1433-7851
DOI - 10.1002/anie.201809640
Subject(s) - plk1 , chemistry , hela , kinase , protein kinase a , protein degradation , protein–protein interaction , microbiology and biotechnology , polo like kinase , target protein , biochemistry , apoptosis , biophysics , cell , biology , cell cycle , gene
Hydrophobic tagging (HT) of bioactive compounds can induce target degradation via the proteasomal pathway. The first application of hydrophobic tagging to an existing inhibitor of protein–protein interactions is now presented. We developed Poloxin‐2HT by fusing an adamantyl tag to Poloxin‐2, an inhibitor of the polo‐box domain of the protein kinase Plk1, which is a target for tumor therapy. Poloxin‐2HT selectively reduced the protein levels of Plk1 in HeLa cells and had a significantly stronger effect on cell viability and the induction of apoptosis than the untagged PBD inhibitor Poloxin‐2. The change in cellular phenotype associated with the addition of the hydrophobic tag to Poloxin‐2 demonstrated that Poloxin‐2HT targets Plk1 in living cells. Our data validate hydrophobic tagging of selective inhibitors of protein–protein interactions as a novel strategy to target and destroy disease‐relevant proteins.