Article
作者: Ornelas, Elizabeth ; Ware, Nathaniel F. ; Sanchez, Carina C. ; Fodor, Barna D. ; Beckwith, Rohan E. J. ; Borikar, Sneha ; Bouwmeester, Tewis ; Wagner, Jürgen ; Wang, Jian ; Aghania, Eamon ; Ma, Xiaolei ; Chitnis, Shripad ; Clifton, Matthew C. ; Dovala, Dustin ; Kerrigan, John Ryan ; Pizzato, Nicolas ; Stevenson, Susan C. ; Ting, Pamela Y. ; Lin, James ; Patterson, Andrew W. ; Altorfer, Marc ; Terranova, Remi ; Solomon, Jonathan M. ; Reyes, Alejandro ; Bradner, James E. ; Thomsen, Noel M. ; Knehr, Judith ; Savage, Nikolas A. ; Dales, Natalie A. ; Barnes, S. Whitney ; Hinman, Amelia E. ; Belew, Muluken S. ; Wu, Fabian ; Niu, Wei ; Paulk, Joshiawa ; Dranoff, Glenn ; Mao, Xiaohong ; Cobb, Jennifer S. ; Taraszka, John ; Burke, Ashley ; Hachey, Amanda
Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a prevalent, life-threatening condition attributable to a heritable mutation in β-hemoglobin. Therapeutic induction of fetal hemoglobin (HbF) can ameliorate disease complications and has been intently pursued. However, safe and effective small-molecule inducers of HbF remain elusive. We report the discovery of dWIZ-1 and dWIZ-2, molecular glue degraders of the WIZ transcription factor that robustly induce HbF in erythroblasts. Phenotypic screening of a cereblon (CRBN)–biased chemical library revealed WIZ as a previously unknown repressor of HbF. WIZ degradation is mediated by recruitment of WIZ(ZF7) to CRBN by dWIZ-1, as resolved by crystallography of the ternary complex. Pharmacological degradation of WIZ was well tolerated and induced HbF in humanized mice and cynomolgus monkeys. These findings establish WIZ degradation as a globally accessible therapeutic strategy for SCD.