Discovery of an Irreversible and Cell-Active BCL6 Inhibitor Selectively Targeting Cys53 Located at the Protein–Protein Interaction Interface

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B-cell lymphoma 6 (BCL6) is the most frequently involved oncogene in diffuse large B-cell lymphomas (DLBCLs). BCL6 shows potent transcriptional repressor activity through interactions with its corepressors, such as BCL6 corepressor (BCOR). The inhibition of the protein–protein interaction (PPI) between BCL6 and its corepressors suppresses the growth of BCL6-dependent DLBCLs, thus making BCL6 an attractive drug target for lymphoma treatment. However, potent small-molecule PPI inhibitor identification remains challenging because of the lack of deep cavities at PPI interfaces. This article reports the discovery of a potent, cell-active small-molecule BCL6 inhibitor, BCL6-i ( 8 ), that operates through irreversible inhibition. First, we synthesized irreversible lead compound 4, which targets Cys53 in a cavity on the BCL6-BTB domain dimer by introducing an irreversible warhead to high-throughput screening hit compound 1 . Further chemical optimization of 4 based on k inact / K I evaluation produced BCL6-i with a k inact / K I value of 1.9 × 10 4 M –1 s –1, corresponding to a 670-fold improvement in potency compared to that of 4 . By exploiting the property of irreversible inhibition, engagement of BCL6-i to intracellular BCL6 was confirmed. BCL6-i showed intracellular PPI inhibitory activity between BCL6 and its corepressors, thus resulting in BCL6-dependent DLBCL cell growth inhibition. BCL6-i is a cell-active chemical probe with the most potent BCL6 inhibitory activity reported to date. The discovery process of BCL6-i illustrates the utility of irreversible inhibition for identifying potent chemical probes for intractable target proteins.