Description:
IC50: 44.17 μM
Homologous recombination (HR) is an essential process in cells that provides repair of DNA double-strand breaks and lesions that block DNA replication. RAD51 is an evolutionarily conserved protein that is central to HR. Overexpression of RAD51 protein is common in cancer cells and represents a potential therapeutic target in oncology. RI-2 is an optimized reversible RAD51 inhibitor.
In vitro: Although RI-2 did exhibit reduced activity relative to RI-1, it did retain enough activity to sensitize cells to MMC cell-based assays. RI-2 exhibited no reactivity toward glutathione after incubation for 24 hours. RAD51 protein that had been treated with RI-2 prior to washing exhibited no measurable loss of DNA binding activity, even though RI-2 is known to inhibit RAD51 with an IC50 of 44.17 μM. This indicates that RAD51 inhibition by RI-2 is fully reversible [1].
In vivo: RI-1, the analogue of RI-2, facilitated mapping of the binding pocket within known crystal structures of RAD51. However, this reactivity of RI-1 potentially may limit its development in pre-clinical animal models. RI-1 has been found to exhibit a relatively short half-life, due to reactivity in thiol-containing solutions [1].
Clinical trial: Up to now, RI-2 is still in the preclinical development stage.
Reference:
[1] Budke B, Kalin JH, Pawlowski M, Zelivianskaia AS, Wu M, Kozikowski AP, Connell PP. An optimized RAD51 inhibitor that disrupts homologous recombination without requiring Michael acceptor reactivity. J Med Chem. 2013 Jan 10;56(1):254-63.