The X-ray crystal structures of six salts composed of amino acids
and sulfonated azo dyes have been
determined, four of them at low temperature (173 K). The compounds
are
dl-lysine/4-[(4-hydroxyphenyl)azo]benzenesulfonate (HABS) monohydrate (1),
dl-lysine/7-hydroxy-8-(phenylazo)-1,3-naphthalenedisulfonate
(Orange
G) dihydrate (2), l-lysine/Orange G 1.5-hydrate
(3), dl-histidine/Orange G trihydrate
(4), l-histidine/Orange G
trihydrate (5), and tosylarginine methyl ester
(TAME)/4-[(2-hydroxy-6-tert-butyl-1-naphthalenyl)azo]benzenesulfonate
(“Little Rock Orange,” LRO) (6). By virtue of their
basic side chains, these amino acids are the ones most
important
in the binding interactions between proteins and sulfated
macromolecules such as glycosaminoglycans in living
systems. The sulfonate salts described here serve as model systems
for these interactions. Close intermolecular
approaches between the dye sulfonate groups and neighboring amino acids
and water molecules are examined, and
the graph-set formalism is used to describe packing patterns and to
identify corresponding interactions in different
crystal structures. The recurrence of certain interactions between
sulfonate groups and amino acid functional groups
in these small-molecule crystal structures, including numerous
interactions mediated by water molecules, suggests
specificity that may also be a feature of the interactions between
proteins and sulfated biological macromolecules.
On the basis of the lead compound 4-(N-acetylamino)-3-guanidinobenzoic acid (BANA 113), which inhibits influenza A sialidase with a Ki of 2.5 microM, several novel aromatic inhibitors of influenza sialidases were designed. In this study the N-acetyl group of BANA 113 was replaced with a 2-pyrrolidinone ring, which was designed in part to offer opportunities for introduction of spatially directed side chains that could potentially interact with the 4-, 5-, and/or 6-subsites of sialidase. While the parent structure 1-(4-carboxy-2-guanidinophenyl)pyrrolidin-2-one (8) was only a modest inhibitor of sialidase, the introduction of a hydroxymethyl or bis(hydroxymethyl) substituent at the C5' position of the 2-pyrrolidinone ring resulted in inhibitors (9 and 12, respectively) with low micromolar activity. Crystal structures of these inhibitors in complex with sialidase demonstrated that the substituents at the 5'-position of the 2-pyrrolidinone ring interact in the 4- and/or 5-subsites of the enzyme. Replacement of the guanidine in 12 with a hydrophobic 3-pentylamino group resulted in a large enhancement in binding to produce an inhibitor (14) with an IC50 of about 50 nM against influenza A sialidase, although the inhibition of influenza B sialidase was 2000-fold less. This represents the first reported example of a simple, achiral benzoic acid with potent (low nanomolar) activity as an inhibitor of influenza sialidase.
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