Inhibition of FBPase is considered a promising way to reduce hepatic gluconeogenesis and therefore could be a potential approach to treat type 2 diabetes. Herein we report the discovery of a series of purine phosphonic acids as AMP mimics targeting the AMP site of FBPase, which was achieved using a structure-guided drug design approach. These non-nucleotide purine analogues inhibit FBPase in a similar manner and with similar potency as AMP. More importantly, several purine analogues exhibited potent cellular and in vivo glucose-lowering activities, thus achieving proof-of-concept for inhibiting FBPase as a drug discovery target. For example, compounds 4.11 and 4.13 are as equipotent as AMP with regard to FBPase inhibition. Furthermore, compound 4.11 inhibited glucose production in primary rat hepatocytes and significantly lowered blood glucose levels in fasted rats.

Attempted conversion of 4-chloro-5-(N-4-bromobutanoyl)amino-6-phenethylaminopyrimidine (2) to 6-chloro-8-[1-(3-bromo)propyl]-9-phenethylpurine (1) under standard cyclization conditions did not give the targeted product. Instead, an unexpected cyclization occurred to give 6-chloro-5-[1-(3-hydroxy)propyl]-9-phenethylpurine (3), which can be viewed as a hydrolysis product of the resulting halide. The cyclization reaction was optimized and compound 3 was prepared in excellent yield. A mechanism involving transient generation of a spiro-tetrahydrofuran is also proposed.

This chapter presents a brief overview of how new drug discovery projects begin, some of the science and business decisions that go into them, what types of projects researchers can expect to see, and how targets are identified and validated. Projects tend to have some commonalities that allow most of them to be divided up into several bins, if the bins are made large enough.. The term target validation can mean different things to different people. To a chemist proposing a new project it might refer to affirmative evidence from a mouse knockout or even just an RNA interference experiment in cells. To a clinician it probably means no less than proven statistically significant efficacy by a drug in large-scale, controlled human trials. Target validation, that is, systematically building up evidence that the interaction of a proposed target with an agent like a small molecule or a monoclonal antibody (mAB) can have a therapeutic effect in a human disease state, is often far from trivial. It represents an ongoing, labor-intensive process that can be rate-limiting, but is necessary to avoid disastrous losses in time, money, and manpower that occur when a clinical drug fails to work because its target is not at all crucial to disease progression or symptoms. Target identification, in this case the process whereby a new target is first proposed based on some minimal evidence, is less cumbersome but still requires devoted resources. The beauty of working on a project based upon an already established target is that both of these steps can be skipped.

A series of substituted bis[(para-methoxy)benzyl] (bisPMB) esters of 1-naphthalenemethylphosphonate (NMPA) were synthesized and evaluated as phosphonate prodrugs. BisPMB NMPA esters (4b and 4c) with significantly improved aqueous stability were identified that also resulted in increased intracellular levels of NMPA following prodrug incubation with primary rat hepatocytes.

Using a scaleable, directed library approach based on orthogonally protected advanced intermediates, we have prepared a series of potent keto-1,2,4-oxadiazoles designed to explore the P2 binding pocket of human mast cell tryptase, while building in a high degree of selectivity over human trypsin and other serine proteases.

Beginning with the peptide sequence Cbz-Ile-Glu(OtBu)-Ala-Leu found in PSI (3), a series of vinyl sulfones (VS) were synthesized for evaluation as inhibitors of the chymotrypsin-like activity of the 20S proteasome. Variations at the key P3 position confirmed the importance of a long side chain capped with a hydrophobic group for optimal potency, consistent with a model of binding to the S3 subsite. The tert-butyl glutamic ester initially used at P3 gave plasma unstable, insoluble compounds and was replaced with the better isostere, N-beta-neopentyl asparagine. The inhibitors were shortened by replacing the N-terminal Cbz-isoleucine with a p-tosyl group without loss of potency. Small l-amino acids were used at P2, where d-substitution was not tolerated. The resulting optimized P4-P3-P2 sequence was grafted onto a novel proteasome inhibitor warhead, 2-keto-1,3,4-oxadiazoles (KOD), to produce reversible, subnanomolar proteasome inhibitors that were 1000-fold selective versus cathepsin B (CatB), cathepsin S (CatS), and trypsin-like as well as PGPH-like proteasome activity. A number of compounds in both the VS and the KOD series exhibited growth inhibitory effects against the human prostate cancer cell line PC3 at submicromolar concentrations.

We have prepared a series of achiral aminoacetonitriles, bearing tri-ring benzamide moieties and an aminocyclohexanecarboxylate residue at P2. This combination of binding elements resulted in sub-250 pM, reversible, selective, and orally bioavailable cathepsin K inhibitors. Lead compounds displayed single digit nanomolar inhibition in vitro (of rabbit osteoclast-mediated degradation of bovine bone). The best compound in this series, 39n (CRA-013783/L-006235), was orally bioavailable in rats, with a terminal half-life of over 3 h. 39n was dosed orally in ovariectomized rhesus monkeys once per day for 7 days. Collagen breakdown products were reduced by up to 76% dose-dependently. Plasma concentrations of 39n above the bone resorption IC50 after 24 h indicated a correlation between functional cellular and in vivo assays. Inhibition of collagen breakdown by cathepsin K inhibitors suggests this mechanism of action may be useful in osteoporosis and other indications involving bone resorption.

L'invention concerne des composes inhibiteurs de la cathepsine B et donc utiles pour le traitement de maladies, troubles ou syndromes dont la mediation est assuree par la cathepsine B, et enfin des compositions pharmaceutiques renfermant les composes en question et des procedes d'elaboration correspondants.

Although a lysosomal, cathepsin B-dependent (Ctsb-dependent) pathway of apoptosis has been described, the contribution of this pathway to tissue damage remains unclear. Our aim was to ascertain if Ctsb inactivation attenuates liver injury, inflammation, and fibrogenesis after bile duct ligation (BDL). In 3-day BDL mice, hepatocyte apoptosis, mitochondrial cytochrome c release, and serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) values were reduced in Ctsb(-/-) versus Ctsb(+/+) animals. Likewise, R-3032 (a Ctsb inhibitor) also reduced these parameters in BDL WT mice. Both genetic and pharmacologic inhibition of Ctsb in the BDL mouse reduced (a) hepatic inflammation, as assessed by transcripts for CXC chemokines and neutrophil infiltration, and (b) fibrogenesis, as assessed by transcripts for stellate cell activation and sirius red staining for hepatic collagen deposition. These differences could not be ascribed to alterations in cholestasis. These findings support a prominent role for the lysosomal pathway of apoptosis in tissue injury and link apoptosis to inflammation and fibrogenesis. Ctsb inhibition maybe therapeutic in liver diseases.