Synthesis and biological activity of piperazine-based dual MMP-13 and TNF-alpha converting enzyme inhibitors

Hydrogenolysis of Carboxylic Ortho Esters

It is demonstrated for the first time that carboxylic ortho esters may be reduced to acetals using hydrogen as the reducing agent. Hydrogenolysis was performed under mild conditions over commercially available hydrogenation catalysts (5% Pd/C and 5% Pt/C). The present method is especially useful for the selective transformation of carboxylic acids and lactones into acetals.

Multiple target-centric strategy to tame inflammation

Single-target inhibition is an unsatisfactory therapeutic option to treat multifactorial pathologies, brought into limelight 'paradox of inflammation' beside dearth of innovation, rationalizes a shift toward 'multiple-target' design concept in anti-inflammatory research field. To improvise, two platform strategies, drugs mixture or multitarget drugs, are plausible. Dual cyclooxygenase/lipoxygenase inhibitor 'licofelone' developed after the backfire of rofecoxib due to safety concerns has fetched first light of triumph of the latter strategy. As hitting multiple targets in restraint is perhaps more viable strategy rather than single target, this review, outlines the most germane multiple target agents of synthetic and natural origin placing clear advantage in favors of multitarget strategy as real therapeutic solution for inflammation.

Design of selective TACE inhibitors using molecular docking studies: Synthesis and preliminary evaluation of anti-inflammatory and TACE inhibitory activity

Tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) converting enzyme (TACE) has been considered one of the principal therapeutic targets for the treatment of TNF-dependent pathologies. Several TACE inhibitors have been reported, but none of them has been successfully passed to phase II clinical trials. In the present work, we attempted to design highly selective new non-hydroxamate sulfonamide TACE inhibitors. The docking study was performed on one of the crystal structures of TACE, selected based on its resolution and R value, to tackle the flexibility issue of the active site. The results allowed us to distinguish the analogues with a higher binding affinity toward the active site of TACE and to identify the substituent of analogues needed for binding with the surrounding site of the enzyme. Finally the analogues were docked on crystal structures of six different matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) for a selectivity study of TACE over MMPs. Some of these analogues were synthesized and subjected to preliminary testing for in vivo anti-inflammatory activity and TACE inhibitory activity.

Discovery of novel inhibitors of a disintegrin and metalloprotease 17 (ADAM17) using glycosylated and non-glycosylated substrates

A disintegrin and metalloprotease (ADAM) proteases are implicated in multiple diseases, but no drugs based on ADAM inhibition exist. Most of the ADAM inhibitors developed to date feature zinc-binding moieties that target the active site zinc, which leads to a lack of selectivity and off-target toxicity. We hypothesized that secondary binding site (exosite) inhibitors should provide a viable alternative to active site inhibitors. Potential exosites in ADAM structures have been reported, but no studies describing substrate features necessary for exosite interactions exist. Analysis of ADAM cognate substrates revealed that glycosylation is often present in the vicinity of the scissile bond. To study whether glycosylation plays a role in modulating ADAM activity, a tumor necrosis factor α (TNFα) substrate with and without a glycan moiety attached was synthesized and characterized. Glycosylation enhanced ADAM8 and -17 activities and decreased ADAM10 activity. Metalloprotease (MMP) activity was unaffected by TNFα substrate glycosylation. High throughput screening assays were developed using glycosylated and non-glycosylated substrate, and positional scanning was conducted. A novel chemotype of ADAM17-selective probes was discovered from the TPIMS library (Houghten, R. A., Pinilla, C., Giulianotti, M. A., Appel, J. R., Dooley, C. T., Nefzi, A., Ostresh, J. M., Yu, Y., Maggiora, G. M., Medina-Franco, J. L., Brunner, D., and Schneider, J. (2008) Strategies for the use of mixture-based synthetic combinatorial libraries. Scaffold ranking, direct testing in vivo, and enhanced deconvolution by computational methods. J. Comb. Chem. 10, 3-19; Pinilla, C., Appel, J. R., Borràs, E., and Houghten, R. A. (2003) Advances in the use of synthetic combinatorial chemistry. Mixture-based libraries. Nat. Med. 9, 118-122) that preferentially inhibited glycosylated substrate hydrolysis and spared ADAM10, MMP-8, and MMP-14. Kinetic studies revealed that ADAM17 inhibition occurred via a non-zinc-binding mechanism. Thus, modulation of proteolysis via glycosylation may be used for identifying novel, potentially exosite binding compounds. The newly described ADAM17 inhibitors represent research tools to investigate the role of ADAM17 in the progression of various diseases.

Quantitative structure-activity relationship studies on sulfonamide-based MMP inhibitors

Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) regulate a wide range of biological functions, but their overactivation leads to a wide array of disease processes such as rheumatoid arthritis, ostereoarthritis, tumor metastatis, multiple sclerosis, congestive heart failure, and a host of others. Therefore, the study of MMP inhibitors has evoked a great interest among scientists. As a result, different groups of compounds have been synthesized and studied for MMP inhibitions. Among them, a large number of structurally novel sulfonamide derivatives have been reported to be potential MMP inhibitors, but only a few have reached to the final stage of clinical trial. Many authors have made quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) studies on them to provide the guidelines to design more potent MMP inhibitors. This article presents a comprehensive review on all such QSARs reported with critical assessment in order to provide a deeper insight into the structure-activity relationship of sulfonamides which can be used to synthesize highly potential drugs of pharmaceutical importance.

Advances in studies on collagenase inhibitors

Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) play an important role in many physiological and pathological processes. Development of MMP inhibitors, in particular collagenase inhibitors, for the treatment of arthritis has been more challenging, undoubtedly. Small-molecular-weight collagenase inhibitors may be classified into several different arbitrary structural classes, depending on the catalytic zinc-binding function as well as other structural elements of the inhibitors. This chapter tries to make an attempt in providing the reader with an overall flavor of the type of scaffolds reported in the past few years along with the molecular modeling studies.

Selective MMP13 inhibitors

Pharmacology of MMP13 and MMP13 selective inhibitors is reviewed.

Design and synthesis of 3,3-piperidine hydroxamate analogs as selective TACE inhibitors

Structure-based methods were used to design beta-sulfone 3,3-piperidine hydroxamates as TACE inhibitors with the aim of improving selectivity for TACE versus MMP-13. Several compounds in this series were synthesized and evaluated in enzymatic and cell-based assays. These analogs exhibit excellent in vitro potency against isolated TACE enzyme and show good selectivity for TACE over the related metalloproteases MMP-2, -13, and -14.

Acetylenic TACE inhibitors. Part 2: SAR of six-membered cyclic sulfonamide hydroxamates

The SAR of a series of potent sulfonamide hydroxamate TACE inhibitors bearing a butynyloxy P1' group was explored. In particular, compound 5k has excellent in vitro potency against TACE enzyme and in cells, and oral activity in an in vivo model of TNF-alpha production and a collagen-induced arthritis model.

From magic bullets to designed multiple ligands

Increasingly, it is being recognised that a balanced modulation of several targets can provide a superior therapeutic effect and side effect profile compared to the action of a selective ligand. Rational approaches in which structural features from selective ligands are combined have produced designed multiple ligands that span a wide variety of targets and target classes. A key challenge in the design of multiple ligands is attaining a balanced activity at each target of interest while simultaneously achieving a wider selectivity and a suitable pharmacokinetic profile. An analysis of literature examples reveals trends and insights that might help medicinal chemists discover the next generation of these types of compounds.

Reverse hydroxamate-based selective TACE inhibitors

Reverse hydroxamate-based selective TACE inhibitors are described. They have potent TACE inhibitory activities and excellent selectivities against MMP-1, 2, 3, 8, 9, 13, 14, and 17. One representative compound, 18 has demonstrated an excellent oral inhibitory activity of the lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated TNF-alpha production in rats.