Bisdionin C-A rationally designed, submicromolar inhibitor of family 18 chitinases

Alexander W. Schuettelkopf, Ole A. Andersen, Francesco V. Rao, Matthew Allwood, Christina L. Rush, Ian M. Eggleston, Daan M. F. van Aalten

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    23 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Chitinases of the GH18 family play important roles in a variety of pathogenic organisms and have also been shown to be involved in human asthma progression, making these enzymes potential drug targets. While a number of potent GH18 chitinase inhibitors have been described, in general, these compounds suffer from limited synthetic accessibility or unfavorable medicinal-chemical properties, making them poor starting points for the development of chitinase-targeted drugs. Exploiting available structural data, we have rationally designed bisdionin C, a submicromolar inhibitor of GH18 enzymes, that possesses desirable druglike properties and tractable chemical synthesis. A crystallographic structure of a chitinase-bisdionin C complex shows the two aromatic systems of the ligand interacting with two conserved tryptophan residues exposed in the active site cleft of the enzyme, while at the same time forming extensive hydrogen.. bonding interactions with the catalytic machinery. The observed mode of binding, together with inhibition data, suggests that bisdionin C presents an attractive starting point for the development of specific inhibitors of bacterial-type, but not plant-type., GH18 chitinases.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)428-432
    Number of pages5
    JournalACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters
    Volume2
    Issue number6
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Jun 2011

    Keywords

    • GH18 Chitinase
    • Xanthine
    • Ligand design
    • Plasma chitotriosidase activity
    • Serratia marcescens
    • Resolution
    • Allosamidin
    • Discovery
    • Substrate
    • Complex
    • Mimicry
    • Growth
    • Gene

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