Design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of phosphinopeptides against Trypanosoma cruzi targeting trypanothione biosynthesis.

Esteban L Ravaschino, Roberto Docampo, Juan B Rodriguez

Departamento de Química Orgánica, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Pabellón 2, Ciudad Universitaria, C1428EHA, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Journal of medicinal chemistry 2006 Jan 12

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As a part of our project aimed at the search for new safe chemotherapeutic and chemoprophylactic agents against American trypanosomiasis (Chagas's disease), a series of phosphinopeptides structurally related to glutathione was designed, synthesized, and evaluated as antiproliferative agents against the parasite responsible for this disease, the hemoflagellated protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi. The rationale for the synthesis of these compounds was supported on the basis that the presence of the phosphinic acid moiety would mimic the tetrahedral transition state of trypanothione synthase (TryS), a typical C:N ligase, and the molecular target of these drugs. Of the designed compounds, 53 and 54 were potent growth inhibitors against the clinically more relevant form of T. cruzi (amastigotes) growing in myoblasts. The efficacy for these drugs was comparable to that exhibited by the well-known antiparasitic agent WC-9. The simple phosphinopeptide structure found as a pharmacophore in the present study constitutes a starting point for the development of straightforward optimized drugs.

Citation

Esteban L Ravaschino, Roberto Docampo, Juan B Rodriguez. Design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of phosphinopeptides against Trypanosoma cruzi targeting trypanothione biosynthesis. Journal of medicinal chemistry. 2006 Jan 12;49(1):426-35