Discovery of a Series of Covalent Ligands That Bind to Cys77 of the Von Hippel-Lindau Tumor Suppressor Protein (VHL).
Lucas, S.C.C., Xu, Y., Hewitt, S., Collie, G.W., Fusani, L., Kadamur, G., Hadfield, T.E., Su, N., Truman, C., Demanze, S., Hao, H., Phillips, C.(2025) ACS Med Chem Lett 16: 693-699
- PubMed: 40236540 
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acsmedchemlett.4c00582
- Primary Citation of Related Structures:  
9GIO - PubMed Abstract: 
Most ligands for the Von Hippel-Lindau tumor suppressor (VHL) bind at the HIF-1α binding site. Ligands that bind to allosteric sites on VHL could be highly valuable for the field of protein degradation, therefore, a covalent hit identification campaign was run targeting Cys77 on VHL. Hit 2 bound selectively to Cys77 on VHL and did not alkylate the reactive Cys89 on Elongin B. It showed time- and concentration-dependent labeling, with a k inact / K I of 0.30 M -1 s -1 , and does not affect binding at the HIF-1α site. This hit ligand was optimized to afford compound 15 which showed improved potency and labeling of VHL. An X-ray structure of a close analogue was determined revealing the compound binding in a shallow groove on the surface of VHL. These are the first small molecules that bind covalently to an allosteric site on VHL and provide a suitable starting point for further optimization.
- Hit Discovery, Discovery Sciences, R&D, AstraZeneca, Cambridge, CB2 0AA, U.K.
Organizational Affiliation: