Potent Inhibitors of Subgenomic Hepatitis C Virus RNA Replication through Optimization of Indole-<i>N</i>-Acetamide Allosteric Inhibitors of the Viral NS5B Polymerase
作者:Steven Harper、Salvatore Avolio、Barbara Pacini、Marcello Di Filippo、Sergio Altamura、Licia Tomei、Giacomo Paonessa、Di Marco、Andrea Carfi、Claudio Giuliano、Julio Padron、Fabio Bonelli、Giovanni Migliaccio、Raffaele De Francesco、Ralph Laufer、Michael Rowley、Frank Narjes
DOI:10.1021/jm050056+
日期:2005.7.1
Infections caused by hepatitis C virus (HCV) are a significant world health problem for which novel therapies are in urgent demand. Compounds that block replication of subgenomic HCV RNA in liver cells are of interest because of their demonstrated antiviral effect in the clinic. In followup to our recent report that indole-N-acetamides (e.g., 1) are potent allosteric inhibitors of the HCV NS513 polymerase enzyme, we describe here their optimization as cell-based inhibitors. The crystal structure of 1 bound to NS513 was a guide in the design of a two-dimensional compound array that highlighted that formally zwitterionic inhibitors have strong intracellular potency and that pregnane X receptor (PXR) activation (an undesired off-target activity) is linked to a structural feature of the inhibitor. Optimized analogues devoid of PXR activation (e.g., 55, EC50 = 127 nM) retain strong cell-based efficacy under high serum conditions and show acceptable pharmacokinetics parameters in rat and dog.