Bacterial enoyl-ACP reductase (FabI) is responsible for catalyzing the final step of bacterial fatty acid biosynthesis and is an attractive target for the development of novel antibacterial agents. ...Previously we reported the development of FabI inhibitor 4 with narrow spectrum antimicrobial activity and in vivo efficacy against Staphylococcus aureus via intraperitoneal (ip) administration. Through iterative medicinal chemistry aided by X-ray crystal structure analysis, a new series of inhibitors has been developed with greatly increased potency against FabI-containing organisms. Several of these new inhibitors have potent antibacterial activity against multidrug resistant strains of S. aureus, and compound 30 demonstrates exceptional oral (po) in vivo efficacy in a S. aureus infection model in rats. While optimizing FabI inhibitory activity, compounds 29 and 30 were identified as having low micromolar FabK inhibitory activity, thereby increasing the antimicrobial spectrum of these compounds to include the FabK-containing pathogens Streptococcus pneumoniae and Enterococcus faecalis. The results described herein support the hypothesis that bacterial enoyl-ACP reductases are valid targets for antibacterial agents.
Bacterial enoyl-ACP reductase (FabI) catalyzes the final step in each cycle of bacterial fatty acid biosynthesis and is an attractive target for the development of new antibacterial agents. Our ...efforts to identify potent, selective FabI inhibitors began with screening of the GlaxoSmithKline proprietary compound collection, which identified several small-molecule inhibitors of Staphylococcus aureus FabI. Through a combination of iterative medicinal chemistry and X-ray crystal structure based design, one of these leads was developed into the novel aminopyridine derivative 9, a low micromolar inhibitor of FabI from S. aureus (IC(50) = 2.4 microM) and Haemophilus influenzae (IC(50) = 4.2 microM). Compound 9 has good in vitro antibacterial activity against several organisms, including S. aureus (MIC = 0.5 microg/mL), and is effective in vivo in a S. aureus groin abscess infection model in rats. Through FabI overexpressor and macromolecular synthesis studies, the mode of action of 9 has been confirmed to be inhibition of fatty acid biosynthesis via inhibition of FabI. Taken together, these results support FabI as a valid antibacterial target and demonstrate the potential of small-molecule FabI inhibitors for the treatment of bacterial infections.
The histone H3-lysine 27 (H3K27) methyltransferase EZH2 plays a critical role in regulating gene expression, and its aberrant activity is linked to the onset and progression of cancer. As part of a ...drug discovery program targeting EZH2, we have identified highly potent, selective, SAM-competitive, and cell-active EZH2 inhibitors, including GSK926 (3) and GSK343 (6). These compounds are small molecule chemical tools that would be useful to further explore the biology of EZH2.
Previously, we reported the direct design of highly potent nonpeptide 3-oxo-1,4-benzodiazepine fibrinogen receptor antagonists from a constrained, RGD-containing cyclic semipeptide. The critical ...features incorporated into the design of these nonpeptides were the exocyclic amide at the 8-position which overlaid the Arg carbonyl, the phenyl ring which maintained an extended Gly conformation, and the diazepine ring which mimicked the gamma-turn at Asp. In this paper, we investigate conformational preferences of the 8-substituted benzodiazepine analogues by examining structural modifications to both the exocyclic amide and the seven-membered diazepine ring and by studying the conformation of the benzodiazepine ring using molecular modeling, X-ray crystallography, and NMR. We found that the directionality of the amide at the 8-position had little effect on activity and the (E)-olefin analogue retained significant potency, indicating that the trans orientation of the amide, and not the carbonyl or NH groups, made the largest contribution to the observed activity. For the diazepine ring, with the exception of the closely analogous 3-oxo-2-benzazepine ring system described previously, all of the modifications led to a significant reduction in activity compared to the potent 3-oxo-1, 4-benzodiazepine parent ring system, implicating this particular type of ring system as a desirable structural feature for high potency. Energy minimizations of a number of the modified analogues revealed that none could adopt the same low-energy conformation as the one shared by the active (S)-isomer of the 3-oxo-1, 4-benzodiazepines and 3-oxo-2-benzazepines. The overall data suggest that the features contributing to the observed high potency in this series are the orientation of the 3-4 amide and the conformational constraint imposed by the seven-membered ring, both of which position the key acidic and basic groups in the proper spatial relationship.
The Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD)-binding integrin alpha(V)beta(3) is highly expressed on osteoclasts and has been proposed to mediate cell-matrix adhesion required for osteoclast-mediated bone resorption. ...Antagonism of this receptor should prevent stable osteoclast adhesion and thereby inhibit bone resorption. We have generated an orally bioavailable, nonpeptide RGD mimetic alpha(v)beta(3) antagonist, SB 265123, which prevents bone loss in vivo when dosed by oral administration. SB 265123 binds alpha(v)beta(3) and the closely related integrin alpha(v)beta(5) with high affinity (K(i) = 3.5 and 1.3 nM, respectively), but binds only weakly to the related RGD-binding integrins alpha(IIb)beta(3) (K(i) >1 microM) and alpha(5)beta(1) (K(i) >1 microM). The compound inhibits alpha(v)beta(3)-mediated cell adhesion with an IC(50) = 60 nM and more importantly, inhibits human osteoclast-mediated bone resorption in vitro with an IC(50) = 48 nM. In vivo, SB 265123 completely blocks bone resorption in a thyroparathyroidectomized rat model of acute bone resorption when dosed at 2.5 mg/kg/h by continuous i.v. infusion. When dosed orally with 3 to 30 mg/kg b.i.d. , in the ovariectomy-induced rat model of osteoporosis, SB 265123 prevents bone resorption in a dose-dependent fashion. This is the first report of an orally active alpha(v)beta(3) antagonist that is effective at inhibiting bone resorption when dosed in a pharmaceutically acceptable fashion. Such a molecule may provide a novel therapeutic agent for the treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis.
We have previously reported (Newlander et al., J. Med. Chem. 1993, 36, 2321-2331) the design of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) protease inhibitors incorporating C7 mimetics that lock ...three amino acid residues of a peptide sequence into a gamma-turn. The design of one such compound, SB203238, was based on X-ray structures of reduced amide aspartyl protease inhibitors. It incorporates a gamma-turn mimetic in the P2-P1' position, where the carbonyl of the C7 ring is replaced with an sp3 methylene group yielding a constrained reduced amide. It shows competitive inhibition with Ki = 430 nM at pH 6.0. The three-dimensional structure of SB203238 bound to the active site of HIV-1 protease has been determined at 2.3 A resolution by X-ray diffraction and refined to a crystallographic R-factor (R = sigma magnitude of Fo magnitude of - magnitude of Fc magnitude of /sigma magnitude of Fo magnitude of, where Fo and Fc are the observed and calculated structure factor amplitudes, respectively) of 0.177. The inhibitor lies in an extended conformation in the active site; however, because of the constrained geometry of the C7 ring, it maintains fewer hydrogen bonds with the protein than in most other HIV-1 protease-inhibitor complexes. More importantly, the inhibitor binds to the enzyme differently than predicted in its design, by binding with the P2-P1' alpha-carbon atoms shifted by approximately one-half a residue toward the N-terminus from their presumed positions. This study illustrates the importance of structural information in an approach to rational drug design.