OR0304 Novel Dual Antagonists Of The Growth Hormone Receptor And The Prolactin Receptor

Disclosure: R. Basu: None. J.J. Kopchick: None. An excess of the human growth hormone (hGH) is associated with multiple pathophysiology including acromegaly, diabetes, cancer, renal dysfunction and age-associated cognitive impairment. On the other hand, a congenital lack of GH action in humans and mice render a protective effect from the above co-morbidities. Consequently, there exists significant pharmaceutical interest in developing antagonists of GH action - rendered via binding and activating the GHR, as well as the prolactin receptor (PRLR), which is particularly relevant for PRLR-rich cancers of the breast and prostate. Our laboratory has pioneered the discovery of the first and only FDA approved GHR antagonist - Somavert (pegvisomant for injection, Pfizer Inc., USA) - currently prescribed for the treatment of acromegaly. Here we present two new and unique designs of antagonists which block the complete spectrum of GH action at both GHR and PRLR binding. The first GHR antagonist design is a full-length G120K-hGH peptide at the core, incorporating targeted cysteine (single or double) substitutions at carefully selected solvent-accessible residues distal to the binding sites. To these substituted cysteines, maleimide activated discrete PEGs (MAL-dPEG; neutral or anionic, branched, different sizes) were specifically conjugated to build a library of multiple putative GHR antagonists. Binding studies and biochemical activities reveal multiple promising GHRA candidates with high binding affinities to both GHR and PRLR, while the biological assays show robust inhibition of GH driven intracellular signaling and oncogenic processes in cultured human cancer cell lines. Intraperitoneal administration of a selected candidate (compound-G) in mice significantly reduced serum IGF1 and IGFBP3 as well, confirming in vivo efficacy. The second candidate antagonist termed ‘S1H’ is a 16-amino-acid peptide designed as a direct sequence mimetic of a unique fragment of the site-1 binding helix of the hGH molecule. To this end we have characterized S1H with mass spectrometry, circular dichroism spectropolarimetry, and in vitro biological assays using human cell lines expressing GHR. S1H inhibited GH as well as PRL induced STAT5 phosphorylation in a dose-dependent manner in multiple cell lines. Moreover, using alanine scanning mutagenesis studies, we identified a strong correlation between the helical propensity and biological activity of S1H - allowing extensive structure activity relationship studies. Thus, we present two distinct designs, preparation and characterization of dual antagonists of the GH action at the level of GHR and PRLR, with prospective applications in pathologies associated with a GH excess and also as valuable compounds to study the nature of human GH-GHR interactions. We currently continue to develop both compounds for pre-clinical validations. Presentation: Thursday, June 15, 2023