Volume 137, Issue 30 e202507092
Forschungsartikel

Reengineering of a Proteomimetic Pan-Ras Inhibitor into a Ras Degrader

Joseph F. Ongkingco

Joseph F. Ongkingco

Department of Chemistry, New York University, 100 Washington Square East, New York, NY, 10003 USA

Both authors contributed equally to this work.

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Dr. Seong Ho Hong

Dr. Seong Ho Hong

Department of Chemistry, New York University, 100 Washington Square East, New York, NY, 10003 USA

Both authors contributed equally to this work.

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Eugene D. Toth

Eugene D. Toth

Department of Chemistry, New York University, 100 Washington Square East, New York, NY, 10003 USA

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Thu Nguyen

Thu Nguyen

Department of Chemistry, New York University, 100 Washington Square East, New York, NY, 10003 USA

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Prof. Paramjit S. Arora

Corresponding Author

Prof. Paramjit S. Arora

Department of Chemistry, New York University, 100 Washington Square East, New York, NY, 10003 USA

E-mail: [email protected]

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First published: 19 May 2025

Abstract

Bifunctional ligands that can coax protein–protein interactions have become attractive therapeutic modalities. Herein, we describe conformationally defined helix dimers as proteomimetic molecular glues. The helix dimers can be rationally designed to engage helical protein interfaces. We previously described a synthetic Sos protein mimic, CHDSOS, as a Ras ligand that inhibits wild-type and oncogenic Ras signaling. This Sos proteomimetic consisted of a crosslinked helix dimer (CHD) that reproduced two helical domains, termed αH and αI, from Sos. The native αH helix of Sos constitutes the primary contact surface for Sos, while αI has minimal engagement. We conjectured that the αI domain of CHDSOS could be reengineered to preserve Ras binding, while engaging another protein to fully leverage the contact residues available in a proteomimetic. Herein, we incorporate a second distinct binding epitope into CHDSOS, thereby generating a bispecific proteomimetic. This secondary epitope was designed based on the p53 activation domain to engage the E3 ligase MDM2 and induce complexation with Ras. The resulting lead proteomimetic, CHDBI4, associates with both MDM2 and Ras and demonstrates reduction of cellular Ras levels. Overall, the study offers a proof of concept for the development of a bispecific proteomimetic scaffold to target multiple protein interfaces.

Conflict of Interests

PA is cofounder of Dimericon Therapeutics, which has licensed the technology described herein.

Data Availability Statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available in the supplementary material of this article.

The full text of this article hosted at iucr.org is unavailable due to technical difficulties.