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Updated: Sep 17, 2026

A Semi-Quantitative Drug Affinity Responsive Target Stability (DARTS) assay for studying Rapamycin/mTOR interaction
Published on: August 27, 2019
Rapamycin targetome mining identifies RBBP7 as a druggable epigenetic vulnerability in hepatocellular carcinoma
Zan Gao1, Le Sun1, Jianlong Li1
1Interdisciplinary Research Center on Biology and Chemistry, Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 386 Bibo Road, Shanghai 201210, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
Abstract:
Identifying therapeutic protein targets is challenging due to unpredictable druggability. Exploring multi-purpose drug targetomes, such as that of rapamycin, offers a valuable strategy for target discovery. Here, using chemical proteomics, we identified the histone-binding protein RBBP7 as a previously unrecognized target of rapamycin. Rapamycin disrupts the RBBP7-H4 interaction, leading to reduced histone H4 acetylation and downregulation of DNMT1. Based on this mechanism, we designed RBBP7-targeting peptides (RBBP7-TPs). RBBP7-TP4 exhibited potent anti-tumor activity in both cellular and xenograft mouse models of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Furthermore, RBBP7-TP4 synergized with HDAC inhibitors to enhance epigenetic efficacy in HCC models, supporting a promising combination strategy. Collectively, our findings highlight the value of mining multi-purpose drug targetomes for therapeutic target discovery. RBBP7 is established as a druggable target in cancer, and RBBP7-TP4 represents a potential peptide-based therapeutic candidate.
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