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. 2023 Aug 2;145(30):16610-16620.
doi: 10.1021/jacs.3c03886. Epub 2023 Jul 18.

Development of Orally Bioavailable Peptides Targeting an Intracellular Protein: From a Hit to a Clinical KRAS Inhibitor

Mikimasa Tanada  1 , Minoru Tamiya  1 , Atsushi Matsuo  1 , Aya Chiyoda  1 , Koji Takano  1 , Toshiya Ito  1 , Machiko Irie  1 , Tomoya Kotake  1 , Ryuuichi Takeyama  1 , Hatsuo Kawada  1 , Ryuji Hayashi  1 , Shiho Ishikawa  1 , Kenichi Nomura  1 , Noriyuki Furuichi  1 , Yuya Morita  1 , Mirai Kage  1 , Satoshi Hashimoto  1 , Keiji Nii  1 , Hitoshi Sase  1 , Kazuhiro Ohara  1 , Atsushi Ohta  1 , Shino Kuramoto  1 , Yoshikazu Nishimura  1 , Hitoshi Iikura  1 , Takuya Shiraishi  1
Affiliations

Development of Orally Bioavailable Peptides Targeting an Intracellular Protein: From a Hit to a Clinical KRAS Inhibitor

Mikimasa Tanada et al. J Am Chem Soc. .

Abstract

Cyclic peptides as a therapeutic modality are attracting a lot of attention due to their potential for oral absorption and accessibility to intracellular tough targets. Here, starting with a drug-like hit discovered using an mRNA display library, we describe a chemical optimization that led to the orally available clinical compound known as LUNA18, an 11-mer cyclic peptide inhibitor for the intracellular tough target RAS. The key findings are as follows: (i) two peptide side chains were identified that each increase RAS affinity over 10-fold; (ii) physico-chemical properties (PCP) including Clog P can be adjusted by side-chain modification to increase membrane permeability; (iii) restriction of cyclic peptide conformation works effectively to adjust PCP and improve bio-activity; (iv) cellular efficacy was observed in peptides with a permeability of around 0.4 × 10-6 cm/s or more in a Caco-2 permeability assay; and (v) while keeping the cyclic peptide's main-chain conformation, we found one example where the RAS protein structure was changed dramatically through induced-fit to our peptide side chain. This study demonstrates how the chemical optimization of bio-active peptides can be achieved without scaffold hopping, much like the processes for small molecule drug discovery that are guided by Lipinski's rule of five. Our approach provides a versatile new strategy for generating peptide drugs starting from drug-like hits.

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