LAUSR

Targeted protein degradation (TPD) is an emerging therapeutic modality with the potential to target previously undruggable targets. However, it has been more challenging to identify orally bioavailable TPD molecules due to the physicochemical properties of the large molecules and narrow structure-activity relationship (SAR) compared to conventional small molecule inhibitors. In the present study, we identified orally active TPD molecules that selectively and potently degrade SMARCA2 protein and induce synthetic lethality in SMARCA4-deficient cancer cells. SMARCA2 (BRM) and SMARCA4 (BRG1) are the two mutually exclusive catalytic core subunits of SWI/SNF complexes that play an important role in controlling gene expression by remodeling chromatin. The complexes are mutated in more than 20% of human cancers and subsets of solid tumors lose expression of SMARCA4 protein due to damaging mutations or gene deletion. The SMARCA4-deficient cancer cells are highly dependent on the paralog gene SMARCA2 for their survival and thus SMARCA2 has been suggested as an attractive therapeutic target for patients with SMARCA4-deficient cancers. We have recently identified SMARCA2 selective degraders that demonstrate oral bioavailability in mice with favorable pharmacokinetic properties, and acceptable DMPK and safety profiles in rodent studies. These SMARCA2 degraders show 50 to 300-fold DC50 selectivity for SMARCA2 over SMARCA4 in our cellular assays. When pre-treated with a proteasome inhibitor or neddylation inhibitor, the degradation of SMARCA2 was rescued, confirming that the degradation is mediated by the ubiquitin-proteasome-dependent pathway. These TPD molecules inhibit only SMARCA4-deficient cancer cell proliferation (NCI-H838, NCI-H1693, HT1080 SMARCA4 KO) with IC50 values ranging from 3-10 nM, but not SMARCA4 WT cells (Calu-6, NCI-H520, HT1080 WT). Oral administration of our SMARCA2 degraders resulted in significant tumor growth inhibition of SMARCA4-deficient lung cancer xenografts at well tolerated doses. The treated tumor tissues show robust SMARCA2 protein reduction for more than 72h post dosing, consistent with the SMARCA2 degradation kinetics-based pharmacodynamic prediction model. In summary, our orally bioavailable SMARCA2 degraders induce synthetic lethality in SMARCA4-deficient cancers in vitro and in vivo. Efforts to further evaluate these compounds in additional models and in combination with other agents are ongoing. Citation Format: Koichi Ito, Artem Shvartsbart, Joseph Rager, Anjana Agarwal, Michael Hulse, Komali Vykuntam, Min Wang, Justin Kurian, Miles Cowart, Joy Cote, Monisha Sivakumar, Jack Carter, Jessica Burtell, Alex Grego, Andrew Moore, Neha Bhagwat, Stefan Ruepp, Tom Emme, Liang Lu, Philip Pitis, Corey Basch, Klare Bersch, Song Mei, Raul Leal, John Rose, Danielle Roth, Ganfeng Cao, Kris Vaddi, Sandy Geeganage, Bruce Ruggeri, Andrew Combs, Peggy Scherle. Selective and orally bioavailable SMARCA2 targeted degraders induce synthetic lethality in SMARCA4- deficient solid tumor. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2023; Part 1 (Regular and Invited Abstracts); 2023 Apr 14-19; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2023;83(7_Suppl):Abstract nr 6277.