Refining the Structure−Activity Relationships of 2-Phenylcyclopropane Carboxylic Acids as Inhibitors of O-Acetylserine Sulfhydrylase Isoforms
            
            Journal of Enzyme Inhibition and Medicinal Chemistry
            2019
            
        
                J. Magalhaes,
        
                N. Franko,
        
                G. Annunziato,
        
                M. Pieroni,
        
                R. Benoni,
        
                Anna Nikitjuka,
        
                A. Mozzarelli,
        
                S. Bettali,
        
                A. Karawajczyk,
        
                Aigars Jirgensons,
        
                B. Campanini,
        
                G. Constantino
        
    
            
            
            The lack of efficacy of current antibacterials to treat multidrug resistant bacteria poses a life-threatening alarm. In order to develop enhancers of the antibacterial activity, we carried out a medicinal chemistry campaign aiming to develop inhibitors of enzymes that synthesise cysteine and belong to the reductive sulphur assimilation pathway, absent in mammals. Previous studies have provided a novel series of inhibitors for O-acetylsulfhydrylase–a key enzyme involved in cysteine biosynthesis. Despite displaying nanomolar affinity, the most active representative of the series was not able to interfere with bacterial growth, likely due to poor permeability. Therefore, we rationally modified the structure of the hit compound with the aim of promoting their passage through the outer cell membrane porins. The new series was evaluated on the recombinant enzyme from Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium, with several compounds able to keep nanomolar binding affinity despite the extent of chemical manipulation.
            
            
            
                Keywords
                Antibacterials, cysteine, Gram-negatives, O-acetylserine sulfhydrylase, permeability
            
            
                DOI
                10.1080/14756366.2018.1518959
            
            
                Hyperlink
                https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14756366.2018.1518959
            
            
            Magalhaes, J., Franko, N., Annunziato, G., Pieroni, M., Benoni, R., Nikitjuka, A., Mozzarelli, A., Bettali, S., Karawajczyk, A., Jirgensons, A., Campanini, B., Constantino, G. Refining the Structure−Activity Relationships of 2-Phenylcyclopropane Carboxylic Acids as Inhibitors of O-Acetylserine Sulfhydrylase Isoforms. Journal of Enzyme Inhibition and Medicinal Chemistry, 2019, Vol.34 No.1, pp.31-43. ISSN 1475-6366. Available from: doi:10.1080/14756366.2018.1518959
            
                Publication language
                English (en)