Hhat inhibition as a novel approach for selective cancer treatment

Being the first or second most common cause of premature death in over 100 countries, cancer imposes a major burden on modern societies worldwide.

Inhibition of the Hedgehog pathway has had success, both in vitro and in the clinic, but resistance is a commonly encountered problem, making alternative Hedgehog modulators in high demand.

Hhat is a membrane associated O-acyl transferase (MBOAT) whose only known function is the palmitoylation of Hedgehog, a posttranslational modification crucial for Hedgehog signalling.

Targeting Hhat thus represents a uniquely specific way to target the hedgehog pathway that could be less prone to gaining resistance, but research in this area is hampered by a lack of good tool compounds.

Here I propose to use cutting edge chemical biology tools to develop selective high potency Hhat inhibitors with thoroughly validated cellular activity.

Such inhibitors are crucially needed to validate Hhat as a target in cancer therapy and the methodologies developed could be transferred to target other clinically relevant MBOATs in for example the Wnt pathway.