Publications by authors named "D Bonenfant"

Article Synopsis
  • STING is a key player in sensing cytosolic nucleic acids and regulating type I interferon responses, making it a target for drug discovery due to its role in various diseases.* -
  • The study identifies a compound called AK59 that can degrade STING by utilizing the HERC4 E3 ligase, which may allow for targeting proteins traditionally considered "undruggable."* -
  • AK59 is effective against common STING mutations, indicating its potential for clinical applications and introducing HERC4 into the conversation around targeted protein degradation.*
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Bromodomain-containing protein 9 (BRD9), an essential component of the SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling complex termed ncBAF, has been established as a therapeutic target in a subset of sarcomas and leukemias. Here, we used novel small molecule inhibitors and degraders along with RNA interference to assess the dependency on BRD9 in the context of diverse hematological malignancies, including acute myeloid leukemia (AML), acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), and multiple myeloma (MM) model systems. Following depletion of BRD9 protein, AML cells undergo terminal differentiation, whereas apoptosis was more prominent in ALL and MM.

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The PEAK family pseudokinases are essential components of tyrosine kinase (TK) pathways that regulate cell growth and adhesion; however, their role in human cancer remains unclear. Here, we report an oncogenic activity of the pseudokinase PEAK2 in colorectal cancer (CRC). Notably, high expression, which encodes PEAK2, was associated with a bad prognosis in CRC patients.

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Treatment of metastasis remains a clinical challenge and the majority of breast cancer-related deaths are the result of drug-resistant metastases. The protein tyrosine phosphatase SHP2 encoded by the proto-oncogene PTPN11 promotes breast cancer progression. Inhibition of SHP2 has been shown to decrease metastases formation in various breast cancer models, but specific downstream effectors of SHP2 remain poorly characterized.

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Asparagine deprivation by l-asparaginase (L-ASNase) is an effective therapeutic strategy in acute lymphoblastic leukemia, with resistance occurring due to upregulation of ASNS, the only human enzyme synthetizing asparagine ( , (1), 629-654). l-Asparaginase efficacy in solid tumors is limited by dose-related toxicities ( 2017, pp 1413-1422). Large-scale loss of function genetic screens identified ASNS as a cancer dependency in several solid malignancies ( , (3), 564-576.

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