Targeting species specific amino acid residues: Design, synthesis and biological evaluation of 6-substituted pyrrolo[2,3-d]pyrimidines as dihydrofolate reductase inhibitors and potential anti-opportunistic infection agents
DOI
10.1016/j.bmc.2018.04.032
Document Type
Journal Article
Publication Date
5-15-2018
Publication Title
Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry
Volume
26
Issue
9
First Page
2640
Last Page
2650
ISSN
9680896
Keywords
DHFR inhibitors, hDHFR, Opportunistic infections, pjDHFR, Pneumocystis pneumonia, Pyrrolo[2, 3-d]pyrimidines
Abstract
To combine the potency of trimetrexate (TMQ) or piritrexim (PTX) with the species selectivity of trimethoprim (TMP), target based design was carried out with the X-ray crystal structure of human dihydrofolate reductase (hDHFR) and the homology model of Pneumocystis jirovecii DHFR (pjDHFR). Using variation of amino acids such as Met33/Phe31 (in pjDHFR/hDHFR) that affect the binding of inhibitors due to their distinct positive or negative steric effect at the active binding site of the inhibitor, we designed a series of substituted-pyrrolo[2,3-d]pyrimidines. The best analogs displayed better potency (IC50) than PTX and high selectivity for pjDHFR versus hDHFR, with 4 exhibiting a selectivity for pjDHFR of 24-fold.
Open Access
Green Accepted
Preprint
Repository Citation
Shah, K., Lin, X., Queener, S., Cody, V., Pace, J., & Gangjee, A. (2018). Targeting species specific amino acid residues: Design, synthesis and biological evaluation of 6-substituted pyrrolo[2,3-d]pyrimidines as dihydrofolate reductase inhibitors and potential anti-opportunistic infection agents. Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry, 26 (9), 2640-2650. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bmc.2018.04.032