Synthesis of 2,6-disubstituted benzylamine derivatives as reversible selective inhibitors of copper amine oxidases.

In order to obtain substrate-like inhibitors of copper amine oxidases (CAOs), a class of enzymes involved in important cellular processes as well as in crosslinking of elastin and collagen and removal of biogenic primary amines, we synthesized a set of benzylamine derivatives properly substituted at positions 2 and 6 and studied their biological activity towards some members of CAOs. With benzylamines 6, 7, 8 containing linear alkoxy groups we obtained reversible inhibitors of benzylamine oxidase (BAO), very active and selective toward diamine oxidase (DAO), lysyl oxidase (LO) and monoamine oxidase B (MAO B) characterized by a certain toxicity consequent to the crossing of the brain barrier. Poorly toxic, up to very active, reversible inhibitors of BAO, very selective toward DAO, LO and MAO B, were obtained with benzylamines 10, 11, 12 containing hydrophilic ω-hydroxyalkoxy groups. With benzylamines 13, 14, 15, containing linear alkyl groups endowed with steric, but not conjugative effects for the absence of properly positioned oxygen atoms, we synthesized moderately active inhibitors of BAO reversible and selective toward DAO, LO and MAO B. The cross examination of the entire biological data brought us to the conclusion that the bioactive synthesized compounds most likely exert their physiological role of reversible inhibitors in consequence of the formation of a plurality of hydrogen bonds or hydrophobic non-covalent interactions with proper sites in the protein. Accordingly, the reported inhibitors may be considered as a set of research tools for general biological studies and the formation of enzyme complexes useful for X-ray structure determinations aimed at the design of more sophisticated inhibitors to always better modulate the protein activity without important side effects.

Alkylamino derivatives of 4-aminomethylpyridine as inhibitors of copper-containing amine oxidases.

The first substratelike, reversible inhibitors of different copper amine oxidases (CAOs) with IC50 (M) as low as 2.0 x 10(-8) corresponding to derivatives of 4-aminomethylpyridine with alkoxy (1a-d), alkylthio (2a,b), and alkylamino (3a-e, 4a-j) groups in the positions 3 and 5 have been prepared and studied. The inhibitors 1a-d are active on benzylamine oxidase and semicarbazide-sensitive amine oxidase and are very selective with respect to diamine oxidase, lysyl oxidase, and monoamine oxidases. The inhibitors 2a,b are selective for benzylamine oxidase whereas 2a is also a new type of good substrate of diamine oxidase. The inhibitors 3a-e and 4a-j are substratelike, reversible, nonselective inhibitors of various CAOs including pea seedling amine oxidase and Hansenula polymorpha amine oxidase, whose enzymatic sites are known from X-ray structure determinations. The inhibitors 3b,c and 4b,c are excellent substratelike tools for studies correlating CAOs that afford crystals suitable for X-ray structure determinations with CAOs from mammals.