Design and synthesis of substrate-based peptidomimetic human immunodeficiency virus protease inhibitors containing the hydroxymethylcarbonyl isostere

The human immunodeficiency (HIV) codes for an aspartic protease known to be essential for retroviral maturation and replication. The HIV protease can recognize Phe-Pro and Tyr-Pro sequences as the virus-specific cleavage site. These features provided a basis for the rational design of selective HIV protease-targeted drugs for the treatment of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). HIV protease is formed from two identical 99 amino acid peptides. We replaced the two Cys residues by L-Ala to synthesize [Ala67,95]-HIV-1 protease by the solid phase method and then prepared [Tyr6,42, Nle36,46, (NHCH2COSCH2CO)51-52, Ala67,95] HIV-1 protease (NY-5 isolate) using the thioester chemical ligation method. Based on the substrate transition state, we designed and synthesized a novel class of HIV protease inhibitors containing an unnatural amino acid, (2S, 3S)-3-amino-2-hydroxy-4-phenylbutyric acid, named allophenylnorstatine (Apns) with a hydroxymethylcarbonyl (HMC) isostere. Among them, the conformationally constrained tripeptide kynostatin (KNI)-272 (iQoa-Mta-Apns-Thz-NHBut) was a highly selective and superpotent HIV protease inhibitor (Ki = 0.0055 nM). KNI-272 exhibited potent antiviral activities against both AZT-sensitive and -insensitive clinical HIV-1 isolates as well as HIV-2 with low cytotoxicity. After i.d. administration, bioavailability of KNI-272 was 42.3% in rats. Also, KNI-272 exhibited in vivo anti-HIV activities in human PBMC-SCID mice. The x-ray crystallography and molecular modeling studies showed that the HMC group in KNI-272 interacted excellently with the aspartic acid carboxyl groups of HIV protease active site in the essentially same hydrogen-bonding mode as the transition state. This result implies that the HMC isostere is an ideal transition-state mimic and contributes to the high activity of KNI-272.