Targeting the actin nucleation promoting factor WASp provides a therapeutic approach for hematopoietic malignancies

Cancer cells depend on actin cytoskeleton rearrangement to carry out hallmark malignant functions including activation, proliferation, migration and invasiveness. Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome protein (WASp) is an actin nucleation-promoting factor and is a key regulator of actin polymerization in hematopoietic cells. The involvement of WASp in malignancies is incompletely understood. Since WASp is exclusively expressed in hematopoietic cells, we performed in silico screening to identify small molecule compounds (SMCs) that bind WASp and promote its degradation. We describe here one such identified molecule; this WASp-targeting SMC inhibits key WASp-dependent actin processes in several types of hematopoietic malignancies in vitro and in vivo without affecting naïve healthy cells. This small molecule demonstrates limited toxicity and immunogenic effects, and thus, might serve as an effective strategy to treat specific hematopoietic malignancies in a safe and precisely targeted manner.