A covalent inhibitor of the YAP–TEAD transcriptional complex identified by high-throughput screening

Kayla Nutsch, Lirui Song, Emily Chen, Mitchell Hull, Arnab K. Chatterjee, Jian Jeffery Chen and Michael J. Bollong

RSC Chem. Biol., 2023

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/D3CB00044C

Yes-associated protein (YAP), the master transcriptional effector downstream of the Hippo pathway, regulates essential cell growth and regenerative processes in animals. However, the activation of YAP observed in cancers drives cellular proliferation, metastasis, chemoresistance, and immune suppression, making it of key interest in developing precision therapeutics for oncology. As such, pharmacological inhibition of YAP by targeting its essential co-regulators, TEA domain transcription factors (TEADs) would likely promote tumor clearance in sensitive tumor types. From a fluorescence polarization-based high throughput screen of over 800 000 diverse small molecules, here we report the identification of a pyrazolopyrimidine-based scaffold that inhibits association of YAP and TEADs. Medicinal chemistry-based optimization identified mCMY020, a potent, covalent inhibitor of TEAD transcriptional activity that occupies a conserved, central palmitoylation site on TEADs.