Malolactone strikes: K-Ras-G12D's Achilles' heel

Abstract

In a recent study in Nature Chemical Biology, Zheng et al. exploiting strain release by malolactone-based electrophiles designed a first-in-class covalent inhibitor that targets the elusive aspartate of the Kirsten rat sarcoma viral oncogene homolog (K-Ras)-G12D variant, which is highly prevalent in pancreatic cancer. The compound drastically inhibited oncogenic signaling and tumor growth in preclinical K-Ras-G12D-mutant pancreatic cancer models, expanding treatment potential beyond K-Ras-G12C-targeted therapies.

Keywords: K-Ras-G12D; alkylation; covalent inhibitor; malolactone; strain release.