Identification of potent small molecule allosteric inhibitors of SHP2

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Identification of potent small molecule allosteric inhibitors of SHP2

Summary
SHP2 is a ubiquitously expressed protein tyrosine phosphatase required for growth factor signalling downstream of receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) and plays a role in regulating many cellular processes.

Genetic knockdown and pharmacological inhibition of SHP2 inhibits proliferation of RTK-driven cancer cell lines and suppresses RAS/MAPK signalling.

SHP2 inhibitors are a promising therapeutic approach as RTK deregulation often leads to a wide range of cancers and several compounds are being tested in the clinic.

Using our fragment-based screening approach, Pyramid^TM, we identified fragment hits binding to the tunnel region¹ between the phosphatase domain and the C-SH2 domain of SHP2 which were improved using structure-guided design.

Here we describe the optimisation of mM fragment hits into potent SHP2 antagonists with in vitro and in vivo anti-tumour activity.