Abstract
Abstract Deregulation of the Notch pathway underlies many aspects of cancer physiology depending on cell type and context. In many human cancers, aberrant Notch activity has been demonstrated to play a role in the initiation and maintenance of the neoplastic phenotype. Notch also plays a central role in cancer stem cells, which may underlie a role in metastasis and resistance to therapy. The important and diverse role played by Notch in cancer makes it an exceedingly attractive target for anti-neoplastic therapeutics. However, the full range of potential targets in the pathway have been under-explored. Through computer-aided drug design we explored potential ligand binding sites and screened for compounds that could disrupt the assembly of the Notch transcriptional activation complex. An in vitro assay that quantitatively measures the assembly of the Notch transcriptional complex on DNA was used for screening. We have recently reported the identification and characterization of a small molecule inhibitor of the Notch transcriptional activation complex, termed Inhibitor of Mastermind Recruitment-1 (IMR-1). Herein we report the characterization of small molecule inhibitors of Notch derived from IMR-1 that were identified through a combination of structure-activity relationship studies and molecular docking simulations. We demonstrate that these compounds inhibit the growth of Notch dependent cell lines and decrease Notch target gene transcription. Citation Format: Luisana Astudillo, Anthony Capobianco. Identification of small molecule inhibitors of the notch transcriptional activation complex [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 196. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-196
