Abstract

To aid the design of next generation hepatitis C virus (HCV) drugs, the kinetics of the interactions between NS3 protease inhibitors and enzyme from genotypes 1a, 1b, and 3a have been characterized. The linear mechanism-based inhibitors VX-950 (telaprevir) and SCH 503034 (boceprevir) benefited from covalent adduct formation. However, the apparent affinities were rather weak (VX-950, K-D* of 340, 8.5, and 1000 nM for genotypes 1a, 1b and 3a, respectively; SCH 503034, K-D* of 90 and 3.9 nM for 1b and 3a, respectively). The non-mechanism-based macrocyclic inhibitors BILN-2016 (ciluprevir) and ITMN-191 (danoprevir) had faster association and slower dissociation kinetics, indicating that rigidification is kinetically favorable. ITMN-191 had nanomolar affinities for all genotypes (K-D* of 0.13, 1.6, and 0.52 nM), suggesting that a broad spectrum drug is conceivable. The data show that macrocyclic scaffolds and mechanism-based inhibition are advantageous but that there is considerable room for improvement of the kinetics of HCV protease targeted drugs.

Published in

Journal of Medicinal Chemistry
2014, volume: 57, number: 5, pages: 1802-1811

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