Open AccessStructure-Based Design of Highly Potent HIV-1 Protease Inhibitors Containing New Tricyclic Ring P2-Ligands: Design, Synthesis, Biological, and X-ray Structural Studies
Author(s) -
Arun K. Ghosh,
Satish Kovela,
Heather L. Osswald,
Masayuki Amano,
Manabu Aoki,
Johnson Agniswamy,
YuanFang Wang,
Irene T. Weber,
Hiroaki Mitsuya
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of medicinal chemistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.01
H-Index - 261
eISSN - 1520-4804
pISSN - 0022-2623
DOI - 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.0c00202
Subject(s) - chemistry , stereochemistry , hiv 1 protease , ligand (biochemistry) , tricyclic , ligand efficiency , protease , sulfonamide , active site , combinatorial chemistry , enzyme , biochemistry , receptor
We describe here design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of a series of highly potent HIV-1 protease inhibitors containing stereochemically defined and unprecedented tricyclic furanofuran derivatives as P2 ligands in combination with a variety of sulfonamide derivatives as P2' ligands. These inhibitors were designed to enhance the ligand-backbone binding and van der Waals interactions in the protease active site. A number of inhibitors containing the new P2 ligand, an aminobenzothiazole as the P2' ligand and a difluorophenylmethyl as the P1 ligand, displayed very potent enzyme inhibitory potency and also showed excellent antiviral activity against a panel of highly multidrug-resistant HIV-1 variants. The tricyclic P2 ligand has been synthesized efficiently in an optically active form using enzymatic desymmetrization of meso-1,2-(dihydroxymethyl)cyclohex-4-ene as the key step. We determined high-resolution X-ray structures of inhibitor-bound HIV-1 protease. These structures revealed extensive interactions with the backbone atoms of HIV-1 protease and provided molecular insights into the binding properties of these new inhibitors.