Novel guanidine-based inhibitors of inosine monophosphate dehydrogenase.

A series of novel guanidine-based small molecule inhibitors of inosine monophosphate dehydrogenase (IMPDH) was explored. IMPDH catalyzes the rate determining step in guanine nucleotide biosynthesis and is a target for anticancer, immunosuppressive and antiviral therapy. The synthesis and the structure-activity relationships (SARs), derived from in vitro studies, for this new series of inhibitors is given.