Cell-active carbazole derivatives as inhibitors of the zika virus protease.
Eur J Med Chem
; 180: 536-545, 2019 Oct 15.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-31344613
ABSTRACT
Zika virus (ZIKV) infection recently resulted in an international health emergency the Americas in and despite its high profile there is currently no approved treatment for ZIKV infection with millions of people being at risk. ZIKV is a member of Flaviviridae family which includes prominent members such as dengue virus (DENV) and West Nile virus (WNV). One of the best validated targets for developing anti-flaviviral treatment for DENV and WNV infection is the NS2B/NS3 protease. However the inhibitors reported to date have shown limited promise for further clinical development largely due to poor cellular activity. Prompted by the conserved nature of the viral NS2B/NS3 protease across flaviviruses, we envisaged that small molecule inhibitors of the ZIKVpro may be developed by applying rational design on previously reported scaffolds with demonstrated activity against other flaviviral proteases. Starting with an earlier WNVpro hit we performed a scaffold hopping exercise and discovered that certain carbazole derivatives bearing amidine groups possessed submicromolar potency and significant cellular activity against ZIKV. We successfully addressed various issues with the synthesis of novel N-substituted carbazole-based amidines thus permitting a targeted SAR campaign. The in vitro biochemical and cell-based inhibitory profiles exhibited by the lead molecule described in this work (ZIKVpro IC50 0.52⯵M, EC50 1.25⯵M), is among the best reported to date. Furthermore, these molecules possess capacity for further optimization of pharmacokinetics and may evolve to broad spectrum flaviviral protease inhibitors.
Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Contexto em Saúde:
2_ODS3
/
3_ND
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Antivirais
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Inibidores de Proteases
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Carbazóis
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Proteínas não Estruturais Virais
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Zika virus
Limite:
Humans
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Eur J Med Chem
Ano de publicação:
2019
Tipo de documento:
Article