Interrupting specific hydrogen bonds between ELF3 and MED23 as an alternative drug resistance-free strategy for HER2-overexpressing cancers

Introduction: HER2 overexpression induces cancer aggression and frequent recurrences in many solid tumors. Because HER2 overproduction is generally followed by gene amplification, inhibition of protein-protein interaction (PPI) between transcriptional factor ELF3 and its coactivator MED23 has been considered an effective but challenging strategy.

Objectives: This study aimed to determine the hotspot of ELF3-MED23 PPI and further specify the essential residues and their key interactions in the hotspot which are controllable by small molecules with significant anticancer activity.

Methods: Intensive biological evaluation methods including SEAP, fluorescence polarization, LC-MS/MS-based quantitative, biosensor, GST-pull down assays, and in silico structural analysis were performed to determine hotspot of ELF3-MED23 PPI and to elicit YK1, a novel small molecule PPI inhibitor. The effects of YK1 on possible PPIs of MED23 and the efficacy of trastuzumab were assessed using cell culture and tumor xenograft mouse models.

Results: ELF3-MED23 PPI was found to be specifically dependent on H-bondings between D400, H449 of MED23 and W138, I140 of ELF3 for upregulating HER2 gene transcription. Employing YK1, we confirmed that interruption on these H-bondings significantly attenuated the HER2-mediated oncogenic signaling cascades and exhibited significant in vitro and in vivo anticancer activity against HER2-overexpressing breast and gastric cancers even in their trastuzumab refractory clones.

Conclusion: Our approach to develop specific ELF3-MED23 PPI inhibitor without interfering other PPIs of MED23 can finally lead to successful development of a drug resistance-free compound to interrogate HER2 biology in diverse conditions of cancers overexpressing HER2.