Covalent ligand discovery is a promising strategy to develop small-molecule effectors against therapeutic targets. Recent studies have shown that dichlorotriazines are promising reactive scaffolds that preferentially react with lysines. Here, we have synthesized a series of dichlorotriazine-based covalent ligands and have screened this library to reveal small molecules that impair triple-negative breast cancer cell survival. Upon identifying a lead hit from this screen KEA1-97, we used activity-based protein profiling (ABPP)-based chemoproteomic platforms to identify that this compound targets lysine 72 of thioredoxin-a site previously shown to be important in protein interactions with caspase 3 to inhibit caspase 3 activity and suppress apoptosis. We show that KEA1-97 disrupts the interaction of thioredoxin with caspase 3, activates caspases, and induces apoptosis without affecting thioredoxin activity. Moreover, KEA1-97 impairs in vivo breast tumor xenograft growth. Our study showcases how the screening of covalent ligands can be coupled with ABPP platforms to identify unique anticancer lead and target pairs.

There is limited knowledge about the metabolic reprogramming induced by cancer therapies and how this contributes to therapeutic resistance. Here we show that although inhibition of PI3K-AKT-mTOR signaling markedly decreased glycolysis and restrained tumor growth, these signaling and metabolic restrictions triggered autophagy, which supplied the metabolites required for the maintenance of mitochondrial respiration and redox homeostasis. Specifically, we found that survival of cancer cells was critically dependent on phospholipase A2 (PLA2) to mobilize lysophospholipids and free fatty acids to sustain fatty acid oxidation and oxidative phosphorylation. Consistent with this, we observed significantly increased lipid droplets, with subsequent mobilization to mitochondria. These changes were abrogated in cells deficient for the essential autophagy gene ATG5 Accordingly, inhibition of PLA2 significantly decreased lipid droplets, decreased oxidative phosphorylation, and increased apoptosis. Together, these results describe how treatment-induced autophagy provides nutrients for cancer cell survival and identifies novel cotreatment strategies to override this survival advantage.