Therapeutic targeting of MYC interactions with an essential cofactor

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MYC is the most frequently amplified gene in human cancer and is overexpressed as a consequence of mutations in diverse oncogenic signaling pathways in 70% of cancers. Given the ubiquity of MYC as a driver of cancer, there is a critical unmet need to develop specific drugs that inhibit MYC function as anti-cancer therapeutics. TRansactivation/tRansformation- domain Associated Protein (TRRAP) is an essential nuclear cofactor for MYC, and small molecule inhibitors of the MYC:TRRAP interaction are predicted to have potent anti-cancer activity. We developed a luciferase-based assay to identify small molecule inhibitors of MYC:TRRAP and initiated a collaboration with the Novartis Institute for Biomedical Research to search their non-proprietary 50,000 drug-like compound set. We identified 33 diverse compounds that show inhibitory activity for MYC:TRRAP in the nanomolar to micromolar concentration range using our luciferase assay. We propose to use cellular and molecular assays to determine which of these compounds inhibit native MYC:TRRAP complexes and ascertain their specificity regarding other MYC and/or TRRAP interacting proteins. Promising compounds will also be assayed for growth inhibitory activity in triple negative breast cancer cells, which have high levels of MYC and determine if growth inhibition can be attributed to loss of MYC function. A long-term goal is the preclinical development of our top lead compounds for in vivo experimentation.