Discovery of a selective inhibitor of doublecortin like kinase 1.

Mitochondrial Dynamics in Pancreatic Cancer

Source: NCI \ Univ. of Virginia Cancer Center (Creator: David Kashatus)

Ferguson FM, Nabet B, Raghavan S, Liu Y, Leggett AL, Kuljanin M, Kalekar RL, Yang A, He S, Wang J, Ng RWS, Sulahian R, Li L, Poulin EJ, Huang L, Koren J, Dieguez-Martinez N, Espinosa S, Zeng Z, Corona CR, Vasta JD, Ohi R, Sim T, Kim ND, Harshbarger W, Lizcano JM, Robers MB, Muthaswamy S, Lin CY, Look AT, Haigis KM, Mancias JD, Wolpin BM, Aguirre AJ, Hahn WC, Westover KD, Gray NS.

Nature Chemical Biology

June 01, 2020

Doublecortin like kinase 1 (DCLK1) is an understudied kinase that is upregulated in a wide range of cancers, including pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). However, little is known about its potential as a therapeutic target. We used chemoproteomic profiling and structure-based design to develop a selective, in vivo-compatible chemical probe of the DCLK1 kinase domain, DCLK1-IN-1. We demonstrate activity of DCLK1-IN-1 against clinically relevant patient-derived PDAC organoid models and use a combination of RNA-sequencing, proteomics and phosphoproteomics analysis to reveal that DCLK1 inhibition modulates proteins and pathways associated with cell motility in this context. DCLK1-IN-1 will serve as a versatile tool to investigate DCLK1 biology and establish its role in cancer.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32251410/

Program:

CTD²

Last updated: July 19, 2020