Total Synthesis and Chemoproteomics Connect Curcusone Diterpenes with Oncogenic Protein BRAT1

23 November 2020, Version 1
This content is a preprint and has not undergone peer review at the time of posting.

Abstract

Natural products are an indispensable source of lifesaving medicine, but natural product-based drug discovery often suffers from scarce natural supply and unknown mode of action. The study and development of anticancer curcusone diterpenes fall into such a dilemma. Meanwhile, many biologically-validated disease targets are considered “undruggable” due to the lack of enzymatic activity and/or predicted small molecule binding sites. The oncogenic BRCA1-associated ATM activator 1 (BRAT1) belongs to such an “undruggable” category. Here, we report our synthetic and chemoproteomics studies of the curcusone diterpenes that culminate in an efficient total synthesis and the identification of BRAT1 as a cellular target. We demonstrate for the first time that BRAT1 can be inhibited by a small molecule (curcusone D), resulting in impaired DNA damage response, reduced cancer cell migration, potentiated activity of the DNA damaging drug etoposide, and other phenotypes similar to BRAT1 knockdown.

Keywords

Total Synthesis
Curcusone
Target Identification
BRAT1
Oncogenic Protein
Anticancer
Diterpene

Supplementary materials

Title
Description
Actions
Title
Table S1 and S2
Description
Actions
Title
Supplementary Information
Description
Actions

Comments

Comments are not moderated before they are posted, but they can be removed by the site moderators if they are found to be in contravention of our Commenting Policy [opens in a new tab] - please read this policy before you post. Comments should be used for scholarly discussion of the content in question. You can find more information about how to use the commenting feature here [opens in a new tab] .
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy [opens in a new tab] and Terms of Service [opens in a new tab] apply.