Abstract
Oestrone sulphatase is an important target in the fight against hormone-dependent breast cancer. In an effort to investigate the reported definitive pharmacophore for oestrone sulphatase and continue our search for potent inhibitors of this enzyme, we have undertaken extensive synthesis, biochemical evaluation and physicochemical property determination of a range of benzoic acid based esters. Here, we report the initial results of our study into a series of straight chain alkyl esters of 4-sulphonylbenzoic acid. Using these compounds, we have investigated the involvement of two physicochemical properties, namely logP and pKa. The results of this study show that there was a strong correlation between the inhibitory activity and the logP of the parent compound. Within the series of compounds studied, hydrophobicity appears to be a more important factor than pKa in determining the overall inhibitory activity. In a previous report, we showed that pKa plays an important role in stabilizing the phenoxide ion resulting from the hydrolysis of the sulphamate group. Here, we propose that although pKa is an important factor in determining the overall inhibitory activity when a wide range of compounds are considered, both hydrophobicity and pKa need to be considered in the design of potential inhibitors of oestrone sulphatase.
醇酮硫酸酶是对抗激素依赖性乳腺癌的重要靶点。为了研究已报道的醇酮硫酸酶的明确药效团并继续寻找这种酶的有效抑制剂,我们进行了大量的苯甲酸酯类化合物的合成、生化评价和理化性质测定。在这里,我们报告了我们对一系列直链烷基苯磺酸酯的研究初步结果。使用这些化合物,我们研究了两种理化性质,即logP和pKa的参与。这项研究结果显示,抑制活性与母体化合物的logP之间存在强烈相关性。在研究的化合物系列中,疏水性似乎比pKa更重要,决定了整体的抑制活性。在先前的报告中,我们表明pKa在稳定由磺酸酯基水解产生的苯酚根离子中起重要作用。在这里,我们提出,尽管pKa在考虑广泛的化合物时在确定整体抑制活性中起重要作用,但在设计潜在的醇酮硫酸酶抑制剂时,需要同时考虑疏水性和pKa。