Discovery of N-(4-sulfamoylphenyl)thioureas as Trypanosoma brucei leucyl-tRNA synthetase inhibitors
作者:Fenglong Zhang、Jin Du、Qing Wang、Qinghua Hu、Jiong Zhang、Dazhong Ding、Yaxue Zhao、Fei Yang、Enduo Wang、Huchen Zhou
DOI:10.1039/c3ob40236c
日期:——
Human African trypanosomiasis (HAT) is one of the most neglected diseases in the tropic regions, which is fatal if not treated in time. There is an urgent need for new therapeutics, especially those in new chemical classes. Leucyl-tRNA synthetase (LeuRS) has been paid much attention as a recently clinically validated antimicrobial target. Our group has previously reported T. brucei LeuRS (TbLeuRS) inhibitors, including benzoxaboroles targeting the editing site and pyrrolinones targeting the synthetic site. Here we report the discovery of N-(4-sulfamoylphenyl)thioureas as a new class of TbLeuRS inhibitors. The R1 and R2 groups, reminiscent of the leucyl and adenyl regions of aa-AMP and aa-AMS, were optimized to result in a significant 13-fold increase of inhibitory activity (compound 19, IC50 = 13.7 μM). Aided by ligand–protein docking, the 1,3-substitution at the central phenyl ring was predicted and proved to give significantly improved activity (59, IC50 = 1.1 μM). This work provided a new scaffold for the exploration of novel inhibitors against TbLeuRS, which may become potential therapeutics for the treatment of HAT.
非洲锥虫病(Human African trypanosomiasis, HAT)是热带地区最为忽视的致死性疾病之一,若不及时治疗,将会有致命风险。迫切需要新的治疗药物,特别是新的化学类别中的药物。白氨酰-tRNA合成酶(Leucyl-tRNA synthetase, LeuRS)作为一个最近的临床验证的抗菌靶点,受到了广泛关注。我们的研究团队前期报道了针对编辑位点的苯并氧杂硼啶类和针对合成位点的吡咯烷酮类刚果锥虫LeuRS(TbLeuRS)抑制剂。在此,我们报道了N-(4-磺酰胺基苯基)硫脲作为新型TbLeuRS抑制剂的发现。借鉴于aa-AMP和aa-AMS中的氨酰基和腺苷基结构的R1和R2基团,经过优化设计,显著提高了13倍的抑制活性(化合物19, IC50 = 13.7 μM)。通过配体-蛋白对接辅助,预测并验证了在苯环上的1,3-取代,能显著提高活性(化合物59, IC50 = 1.1 μM)。这项工作为探索新型TbLeuRS抑制剂提供了一个新的骨架,这些抑制剂可能成为治疗HAT的潜在药物。