Synthesis of 4- and 5-arylthiazolinethiones as inhibitors of indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase.

Docking studies of 4-phenylthiazolinethione on human IDO1 suggest complexation of the heme iron by the exocyclic sulfur atom further reinforced by hydrophobic interactions of the phenyl ring within pocket A of the enzyme. On this basis, chemical modifications were proposed to increase inhibition activity. Synthetic routes had to be adapted and optimized to yield the desired substituted 4- and 5-arylthiazolinethiones. Their biological evaluation shows that 5-aryl regioisomers are systematically less potent than the corresponding 4-aryl analogs. Substitution on the phenyl ring does not significantly increase inhibition potency, except for 4-Br and 4-Cl derivatives.

Conformation and tautomerism of methoxy-substituted 4-phenyl-4-thiazoline-2-thiones: a combined crystallographic and ab initio investigation.

4-Phenyl-4-thiazoline-2-thiol is an active pharmaceutical compound, one of whose activities is as a human indolenamine dioxygenase inhibitor. It has been shown recently that in both the solid state and the gas phase, the thiazolinethione tautomer should be preferred. As part of both research on this lead compound and a medicinal chemistry program, a series of substituted arylthiazolinethiones have been synthesized. The molecular conformations and tautomerism of 4-(2-methoxyphenyl)-4-thiazoline-2-thione and 4-(4-methoxyphenyl)-4-thiazoline-2-thione, both C10H9NOS2, are reported and compared with the geometry deduced from ab initio calculations [PBE/6-311G(d,p)]. Both the crystal structure analyses and the calculations establish the thione tautomer for the two substituted arylthiazolinethiones. In the crystal structure of the 2-methoxyphenyl regioisomer, the thiazolinethione unit was disordered over two conformations. Both isomers exhibit similar hydrogen-bond patterns [R2(2)(8) motif] and form dimers. The crystal packing is further reinforced by short S...S interactions in the 2-methoxyphenyl isomer. The conformations of the two regioisomers correspond to stable geometries calculated from an ab initio energy-relaxed scan.