Nature Communications (Nov 2024)

Crystal structures of DCAF1-PROTAC-WDR5 ternary complexes provide insight into DCAF1 substrate specificity

  • Mark F. Mabanglo,
  • Brian Wilson,
  • Mahmoud Noureldin,
  • Serah W. Kimani,
  • Ahmed Mamai,
  • Chiara Krausser,
  • Héctor González-Álvarez,
  • Smriti Srivastava,
  • Mohammed Mohammed,
  • Laurent Hoffer,
  • Manuel Chan,
  • Jamie Avrumutsoae,
  • Alice Shi Ming Li,
  • Taraneh Hajian,
  • Sarah Tucker,
  • Stuart Green,
  • Magdalena Szewczyk,
  • Dalia Barsyte-Lovejoy,
  • Vijayaratnam Santhakumar,
  • Suzanne Ackloo,
  • Peter Loppnau,
  • Yanjun Li,
  • Almagul Seitova,
  • Taira Kiyota,
  • Jue George Wang,
  • Gilbert G. Privé,
  • Douglas A. Kuntz,
  • Bhashant Patel,
  • Vaibhavi Rathod,
  • Anand Vala,
  • Bhimsen Rout,
  • Ahmed Aman,
  • Gennady Poda,
  • David Uehling,
  • Jailall Ramnauth,
  • Levon Halabelian,
  • Richard Marcellus,
  • Rima Al-awar,
  • Masoud Vedadi

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-54500-x
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 15, no. 1
pp. 1 – 17

Abstract

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Abstract Proteolysis-targeting chimeras (PROTACs) have been explored for the degradation of drug targets for more than two decades. However, only a handful of E3 ligase substrate receptors have been efficiently used. Downregulation and mutation of these receptors would reduce the effectiveness of such PROTACs. We recently developed potent ligands for DCAF1, a substrate receptor of EDVP and CUL4 E3 ligases. Here, we focus on DCAF1 toward the development of PROTACs for WDR5, a drug target in various cancers. We report four DCAF1-based PROTACs with endogenous and exogenous WDR5 degradation effects and high-resolution crystal structures of the ternary complexes of DCAF1-PROTAC-WDR5. The structures reveal detailed insights into the interaction of DCAF1 with various WDR5-PROTACs, indicating a significant role of DCAF1 loops in providing needed surface plasticity, and reflecting the mechanism by which DCAF1 functions as a substrate receptor for E3 ligases with diverse sets of substrates.