SAR studies of 2-methoxyestradiol and development of its analogs as probes of anti-tumor mechanisms.

The major estrogen metabolite 2-methoxyestradiol (2ME) has been shown to target tumor cells without severe side effects and is currently being evaluated in clinical trials for several types of cancer. Despite its promise for use in clinical setting, the mechanism(s) by which 2ME exerts its anti-tumor activity is not clearly defined at this time. Employing organic chemistry tools, we synthesized 2ME analogs with which 2ME affinity column was prepared, enabling us to detect a protein that selectively interacts with 2ME.

Degradation of target protein in living cells by small-molecule proteolysis inducer.

Ubiquitin-dependent proteolysis of cellular proteins is one of the major pathways to regulate protein function posttranslationally. Here we demonstrate a potentially general method of degrading any targeted proteins by the ubiquitin-dependent proteolysis in living cells, using small-molecule proteolysis inducer (SMPI).