Modular Assembled Targeting Chimera Enables Multimodal Targeted Protein Degradation
Targeted protein degradation (TPD) has emerged as a promising therapeutic strategy, with advantages over traditional protein inhibition. Despite significant advancements in novel degraders such as bivalents and multitargeting proteolysis-targeting chimeras (PROTACs), key challenges persist in the development pipeline, particularly regarding the identification of highly potent degraders and the optimization of their drug-like properties. Here, we reported a multimodal modular assembled targeting chimera (multi-MOATAC) strategy that enabled intracellular click chemistry-mediated <i>in situ</i> assembly of ligand modules with targets, integrating multiple functional units into binary/ternary complexes. This strategy validated significantly enhanced degradation efficiency via trivalent self-assembling degraders and identified a highly effective self-assembly stoichiometric ratio, achieving a DC<sub>50</sub> of 4.6 ± 1.3 nM for BRD4 in MDA-MB-231 cells. To evaluate broad applicability, the target scope was expanded from nuclear protein BRD4 to challenging targets, including membrane-localized EGFR and cytoplasmic protein ALK. Furthermore, optimizing the stoichiometric ratio of self-assembling modules achieved parallel degradation of distinct targets. The superior antitumor efficacy of trivalent self-assembling PROTACs was also confirmed <i>in vivo</i>. The highly modular and scalable multi-MOATAC strategy may enable broad applications in developing novel tissue-specific degraders and advancing therapeutics for related diseases.
Authors
- Yinmiao Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8669-5971)
- Fang Xu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0895-3071)
- Wentao Zhu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0433-5935)
- Jian Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5982-044X)
- Jiyan Pang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0330-2808)
- Wenqian Zhang
Institutions
- Sun Yat-sen University (CN)
- Jinan University (CN)
- Ministry of Education (TH)
Publication Details
- Journal
- JACS Au
- Published
- 2025-11-05
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1021/jacsau.5c01131
- Primary Topic
- Protein Degradation and Inhibitors
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00