Conformationally constrained CIS-amide chimeric inhibitors of Hsp90 have been synthesized and evaluated for their Hsp90 inhibitory activity. These new compounds exhibited Hsp90 ATPase inhibition and induced Hsp90-dependent client protein degradation in a dose-dependent manner. Biological data reported herein suggests that amide bond isomerization of geldanamycin derivatives plays an important role in affinity for the heteroprotein complex present in cancer cells.The 90 kDa heat shock proteins (Hsp90) are ATP-dependent molecular chaperones overexpressed in response to cellular stress and necessary for the folding and rematuration of nascent and denatured polypeptides, respectively. 1,2,3,4 Two natural products, geldanamycin 5 (GDA, Figure 1) and radicicol 6 (RDC), bind the Hsp90 N-terminal binding pocket and competitively inhibit ATP binding resulting in degradation of Hsp90-dependent client proteins via the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway. 7 Hsp90 clientele play key roles in all six hallmarks of cancer 8 , therefore inhibition of the Hsp90 protein folding machinery results in simultaneous disruption of all six mechanisms of oncogenesis. 9,10 Consequently, not only has Hsp90 emerged as a promising anti-cancer target 11 , but GDA and RDC have proven to represent excellent models for which the development of new Hsp90 inhibitors can be pursued for drug development and mechanistic studies. 12Although RDC and GDA bind Hsp90 with high affinity, their modes of binding and inhibitory activities are different. Radicicol exists in the same bent conformation when bound and unbound to Hsp90 and produces a favorable entropy of 8.3 cal/mol upon binding. Not surprisingly, the predisposition of RDC to the bent conformation is believed to be responsible for its similar activity in both cellular and recombinant assays. 13 E-mail: bblagg@ku.edu. Supporting Information Available Experimental procedures and characterization for all compounds. This material is avalible free of charge via the internet at http://pubs.acs.org.
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Author ManuscriptOrg Lett. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2010 June 4.
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NIH-PA Author ManuscriptIn contrast to the bent, cis-amide conformation of GDA when bound to Hsp90, both solution and crystal structures have demonstrated that this natural product exists in an extended, trans-amide conformation when unbound to Hsp90 (Figure 2). 14 Multiple studies have demonstrated that prior to binding Hsp90, GDA must undergo two conformational changes; the ansa ring must rotate over the benzoquinone moiety and the amide bond must isomerize from trans to cis by rotation about C 1 -N 22 and C 20 -N 22 (Figure 2). The first event is reported to occur spontaneously; however isomerization of the amide bond is estimated to exceed 20 kcal/mol. 15 Accordingly, isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) experiments have shown that GDA exhibits an entropic penalty of −6.4 cal/mol upon binding Hsp90. 16,17As a consequence of these thermodynamic data, Santi and co...