The First-In-Class Deubiquitinase-Targeting Chimera Stabilizes and Activates cGAS

Deubiquitinase-targeting chimera (DUBTAC) is a promising technology for inducing targeted protein stabilization (TPS). Despite its therapeutic potential, very few proteins have been stabilized by DUBTACs to date. The limited applicability of this technology is likely due to the modest DUBTAC-induced protein stabilization effect, and the scarcity of effective deubiquitinase ligands that can be harnessed for DUBTAC development. Here, we report the discovery of MS7829 and MS8588, the first-in-class DUBTACs of cGAS, a key component of the cGAS-STING pathway. While these DUBTACs are based on a cGAS inhibitor, they effectively stabilized cGAS and activated the cGAS/STING/IRF3 signaling. To develop these cGAS DUBTACs, we optimized EN523, an OTUB1 covalent ligand, into an improved ligand, MS5105. We validated MS5105 by generating a MS5105-based CFTR DUBTAC, which was approximately 10-fold more effective in stabilizing the ΔF508-CFTR mutant protein than the previously reported EN523-based CFTR DUBTAC. Overall, this work advances the DUBTAC technology for TPS.