Synthesis and biological evaluation of a tumor-selective degrader of PARP1

Poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors show potent antiproliferative activity in treatment with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) when combined with chemotherapeutic drugs. However, the emergence of safety issues and drug-resistance of PARP inhibitors prompt us to search for new strategies. It was proved that Proteolysis Targeting Chimeras (PROTACs) is more effective than traditional small molecule which can induce target proteins degradation rather than inhibition. In this article, based on the Olaparib derivatives and cereblon (CRBN) E3 ligase ligands, a series of PARP1 degraders, with linkers bearing different length and type were designed and synthesized. Among them, compound LB23 showed efficacious antiproliferative activity in various human cancer cells and can induce PARP1 protein degradation effectively. Moreover, LB23 showed 60-fold degradation selectivity in tumor cells with low degradation toxicity in normal cells. This study shows that the PROTAC tumor selectivity can be optimized by tuning the length and composition of the linker.