Discovery of a Chemical Probe Bisamide (CCT251236): An Orally Bioavailable Efficacious Pirin Ligand from a Heat Shock Transcription Factor 1 (HSF1) Phenotypic Screen

Phenotypic screens, which focus on
measuring and quantifying discrete
cellular changes rather than affinity for individual recombinant proteins,
have recently attracted renewed interest as an efficient strategy
for drug discovery. In this article, we describe the discovery of
a new chemical probe, bisamide (CCT251236), identified using an unbiased
phenotypic screen to detect inhibitors of the HSF1 stress pathway.
The chemical probe is orally bioavailable and displays efficacy in
a human ovarian carcinoma xenograft model. By developing cell-based
SAR and using chemical proteomics, we identified pirin as a high affinity
molecular target, which was confirmed by SPR and crystallography.