Huawei Zhu

Novel aminopeptidase N inhibitors derived from 1,3,4-thiadiazole scaffold.

The aminopeptidase N (APN/CD13), overexpressed in tumor cells, plays a critical role in angiogenesis. In this study, we report the synthesis and in vitro enzyme inhibition assay of 1,3,4-thiadiazole scaffold compounds. These new compounds have potent inhibitory activities toward APN with IC(50) values in the micromol rang.

Design, synthesis, and QSAR studies of novel lysine derives as amino-peptidase N/CD13 inhibitors.

A series of novel l-lysine derivatives were designed, synthesized, and assayed for their inhibitory activities on amino-peptidase N (APN)/CD13 and matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2). The preliminary biological test showed that most of the compounds displayed a high inhibitory activity against MMP-2 and a low activity against APN except compound B6 which exhibited good potency (IC(50)=13.2microM) similar with APN inhibitor Bestatin (IC(50)=15.5microM), and could be used as lead compound in the future.

Design, synthesis and primary activity evaluation of l-arginine derivatives as amino-peptidase N/CD13 inhibitors

Abstract A series of l-arginine derivatives were designed, synthesized and assayed for their activities against amino-peptidase N (APN)/CD13 and metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2). The results showed that most compounds exhibited high inhibitory activities against APN and low activities against MMP-2. Within this series, two compounds 5q and 5s (IC50 =5.3 and 5.1μM) showed similar inhibitory activities compared with bestatin (IC50 =3.8μM), which could be used as novel lead compounds for the future APN inhibitors development as anticancer agents.

Novel matrix metalloproteinase inhibitors derived from quinoxalinone scaffold (Part I).

A series of quinoxalinone peptidomimetic derivatives was designed, synthesized, and assayed for their inhibitory activities on metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) and aminopeptidase N (APN). The results showed that all of these quinoxalinone derivatives displayed highly selective inhibition against MMP-2 as compared with APN, with IC(50) values in the micromole range. Compound A3 showed comparable MMP-2 inhibitory activities than the positive control LY52, which might be used as a potential lead in future research on anticancer agents.

Novel aminopeptidase N inhibitors derived from antineoplaston AS2-5 (Part II).

Overexpression of zinc-dependent metalloproteinase, aminopeptidase N (APN/CD13), is considered to be involved in the process of tumor invasion and metastasis. Herein we describe the synthesis and in vitro enzymatic inhibition assay of antineoplaston AS2-5 scaffold peptidomimetic compounds. The results demonstrated that most of these L-iso-glutamine derivatives displayed selective inhibitory activity against APN as compared with MMP-2, with IC(50) values in the micromole range. The structure-activity relationships were also briefly discussed.

3D-QSAR study of pyrrolidine derivatives as matrix metalloproteinase-2 inhibitors

In order to develop potent inhibitors of matrix metalloproteinase-2(MMP-2) as anticancer agents, a three-dimensional quantitative structure–activity relationship (3D-QSAR) model was established by using comparative molecular field analysis (CoMFA) and comparative molecular similarity indices analysis (CoMSIA) methods. This study correlates the MMP-2 inhibitory activities of 67 pyrrolidine derivatives to steric, electrostatic, hydrophobic, and hydrogen-bond donor and acceptor fields. After using two different molecular alignments, both CoMFA and CoMSIA models resulted in good statistical predictions, a case in point being their high q2 values of between 0.757 and 0.843. The CoMFA and CoMSIA models established herein will be helpful in understanding the structure–activity relationship of pyrrolidine derivatives as well as in the design of novel derivatives with enhanced MMP-2 inhibitory activity.

A novel aminopeptidase N inhibitor developed by virtual screening approach.

A virtual screening was performed to discover novel lead structures as potent aminopeptidase N(APN) inhibitors. A commercial database containing about 1,60,000 molecules in SPECS was filtered by rule of five, zinc binding groups, pharmacophore models and binding pattern analysis. At last, 24 molecules were selected for enzyme inhibition assay and compound 2 exhibited the inhibition constant (K(i)) of 2.79±0.32 μM against APN compared with Bestatin (K(i)= 3.37±0.24 μM). Our results indicated that compound 2 exhibited good antiproliferative activities against a broad spectrum of human cancer cell lines, and induced cell cycle arrest at G1 phase and eventual apoptosis. Moreover, compound 2 can inhibit the invasion of MDA-MB-231 cells. In summary, our results suggest that compound 2, a potent APN inhibitor, is worthy of further development.

Design, synthesis and SAR studies of tripeptide analogs with the scaffold 3-phenylpropane-1,2-diamine as aminopeptidase N/CD13 inhibitors

Aminopeptidase N (APN), belonged to metalloproteinase, is an essential peptidase involved in the process of tumor invasion and metastasis. A series of tripeptide analogs with the scaffold 3-phenylpropane-1,2-diamine were designed, synthesized and evaluated for their ability to inhibit APN. Preliminary activity evaluation showed that most of target compounds possessed potent inhibitory activities against APN. With in this series, compound A6 and B6 exhibited good potency with the IC(50) values of 8.8+/-1.3 microM and 8.6+/-1.1 microM, respectively.

Activity screening and structure-activity relationship of the hit compounds targeting APN/CD13.

Aminopeptidase N (APN) plays an important role in tumor progression, which participates in the progress such as proliferation, attachment, angiogenesis, and tumor invasion. All of this makes APN as a good chemical therapeutic anti‐tumor target. In this study, a series of chemically synthesized APN inhibitors were tested for the anti‐tumor activities, and three most effective compounds were chosen according to the MTT assay. Then, the enzyme inhibitory, anti‐tumor, specificity, angiogenesis, and invasion were determined to evaluate the activity of these three compounds. All compounds can markedly inhibit the enzyme activity of APN, angiogenesis of endothelial cells, and the invasion of ES‐2 cells. And it had little effect on the viability of K562 which express low level of APN. This data indicated that the tested compounds were APN hit compounds. We also did kinetic assay to determine the inhibition constant and constructed a three‐dimensional quantitative structure–activity relationship model to analyze the structure–activity relationship to direct the further design of novel APN inhibitors as anti‐tumor agents. These data demonstrate that the tested compounds can be developed as novel candidates of anticancer agent.

Design, synthesis, and preliminary studies of the activity of novel derivatives of N-cinnamoyl-L-aspartic acid as inhibitors of aminopeptidase N/CD13.

A series of novel derivatives of N-cinnamoyl-l-aspartic acid were designed, synthesized, and assayed for their inhibitory activities against aminopeptidase N. The preliminary biological assay showed that compound 8c has the most potent inhibitory activity against APN with an IC(50) of 11.1+/-0.9 microM, this could be used as the lead compound in future research on anticancer agents.