Dimethylthiazolidine Carboxylic Acid as a Rigid P3 Unit in Inhibitors of Serine Proteases: Application to Two Targets

Ligand bioactive conformation plays a critical role in the design of drugs that target the hepatitis C virus NS3 protease

A ligand-focused strategy employed NMR, X-ray, modeling, and medicinal chemistry to expose the critical role that bioactive conformation played in the design of a variety of drugs that target the HCV protease. The bioactive conformation (bound states) were determined for key inhibitors identified along our drug discovery pathway from the hit to clinical compounds. All adopt similar bioactive conformations for the common core derived from the hit peptide DDIVPC. A carefully designed SAR analysis, based on the advanced inhibitor 1 in which the P1 to P3 side chains and the N-terminal Boc were sequentially truncated, revealed a correlation between affinity and the relative predominance of the bioactive conformation in the free state. Interestingly, synergistic conformation effects on potency were also noted. Comparisons with clinical and recently marketed drugs from the pharmaceutical industry showed that all have the same core and similar bioactive conformations. This suggested that the variety of appendages discovered for these compounds also properly satisfy the bioactive conformation requirements and allowed for a large variety of HCV protease drug candidates to be designed.

The effect of the P1 side chain on the binding of optimized carboxylate and activated carbonyl inhibitors of the hepatitis C virus NS3 protease

Peptidyl inhibitors of the hepatitis C virus NS3 protease hold much promise as direct-acting antiviral agents against hepatitis C infection. The optimization of N-terminal cleavage products, found to exhibit activity (product inhibition) against the enzyme, has led to potent tripeptide inhibitors that bear free C-terminal carboxylate groups. An analogous activated carbonyl compound (pentafluoroethyl ketone) bearing a P1 norvaline (Nva) was found to possess comparable activity against hepatitis C virus protease. However, an analogue bearing an aminocyclopropylcarboxylic acid (Acca) P1 residue exhibited very poor activity. 19F-NMR studies indicate that the propensity of the Acca-derived activated carbonyl to form hemiketals is only slightly reduced compared with that of a P1 Nva equivalent. These results, as well as molecular modeling studies, argue against steric hindrance of the nucleophilic attack of Ser-139 accounting for the poor mechanism-based inhibition by the former. We hypothesize that the conformational properties of the respective C-termini in the context of an adaptable active site account for the divergent P1 structure–activity relationships.