Promega research published today in Nature Communications demonstrates a new potential approach for managing multiple myeloma and other hematological cancers. The molecule, called SJ3149, demonstrates potent anti-proliferative activity in a variety of human cancer cell lines through selective degradation of the cancer-causing protein CK1α. The authors suggest that this degrader shows great promise for broad-spectrum anti-cancer applications.

“The rapid and robust degradation of CK1α affects the target’s cellular pathway, leading to broad killing in a variety of cancer cell models,” says Promega Research Scientist Elizabeth Caine. “We believe the research in this paper will provide valuable insights to researchers developing all types of degrader molecules.”

Targeted protein degradation is an emerging form of treatment in which a therapeutic molecule recruits the cell’s own machinery to destroy defective proteins. In this study, the team primarily focused on degrading a protein called CK1α, which is linked to uncontrolled cell proliferation. They report that SJ3149 potently and selectively degrades CK1α and limits the proliferation of multiple cancer cell lines spanning a wide range of disease subtypes. Their results strongly support future research on applying selective CK1α degraders to many different cancer types.