摘要:
We have designed highly potent synthetic bivalent thrombin inhibitors, which consist of an active site blocking segment, a fibrinogen recognition exosite blocking segment, and a linker connecting these segments. The bivalent inhibitors bind to the active site and the fibrinogen recognition exosite simultaneously. As a result, the inhibitors showed much higher affinity for thrombin than the individual blocking segments. Various arginyl ketomethylene isosteres Arg Psi-[CO-CH2-X]P-1' were incorporated into the bivalent inhibitors as P-1-P-1' segment to eliminate the scissile bond. The P-1' residue is a natural or unnatural amino acid; specifically, the incorporation of mercaptoacetic acid exhibited superiority in synthesis and affinity for thrombin. Inhibitor 16, (D-cyclohexylalanine)-Pro-Arg Psi[CO-CH2-S]Gly-(Gly)(4)-Asp-Tyr-Glu-Pro-Ile-Pro-Glu-Glu-Tyr-cyclohexylalanine-(D-Glu)-OH showed the lowest K-i value of 3.5 +/- 0.5 x 10(-13) M, which is comparable to that (K-i = 2.3 x 10(-13) M) of recombinant hirudin. Consequently we successfully reduced the size of the inhibitor from similar to 7 kDa of recombinant hirudin to similar to 2 kDa without losing the affinity.