Discovery of First-in-Class Dual PARP and EZH2 Inhibitors for Triple-Negative Breast Cancer with Wild-Type BRCA

PARP inhibitors have highly significant effects on BRCA mutant cells, allowing targeted therapy of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). However, some TBNC patients lack BRCA mutations. Recent studies have shown that EZH2 inhibitors can increase the sensitivity of wild-type BRCA cells to PARP inhibitors. We designed a series of dual PARP and EZH2 inhibitors, and the most promising compound, 5a, showed good inhibitory activity against PARP-1 and EZH2 and good inhibitory effects on MDA-MB-231 (IC₅₀ = 2.63 μM) and MDA-MB-468 (IC₅₀ = 0.41 μM) cells with wild-type BRCA. Compared with that of olaparib, the growth inhibitory activities against these two cell types increased by approximately 15- and 80-fold, respectively, which was even more effective than the combination of olaparib and tazemetostat/GSK126. 5a can induce autophagy death of tumor cells and cause less damage to normal cells. Therefore, 5a, as a first-in-class dual PARP and EZH2 inhibitor, is a potential anticancer drug candidate for the treatment of TNBC.