Identification of a new series of amides as non-covalent proteasome inhibitors

• Proteasome inhibition is a significant strategy for anti-cancer drug development.
• Synthesis of a new series of amides as peptidomimetic inhibitors of the β5 proteasome subunit.
• Two of these amides are good candidates to non-covalent inhibition of the chymotrypsin-like activity of 20S proteasome.
• The obtained results were rationalized by means of docking experiments.

Proteasome inhibition has emerged as an important therapeutic strategy for the treatment of multiple myeloma (MM) and some forms of lymphoma, with potential application in other types of cancers. 20S proteasome consists of three different catalytic activities known as chymotrypsin-like (ChT-L), trypsin-like (T-L), and, post-glutamyl peptide hydrolyzing (PGPH) or caspase-like (C-L), which are located respectively on the β5, β2, and β1 subunits of each heptameric β rings. Currently a wide number of covalent proteasome inhibitors are reported in literature; however, the less widely investigated non-covalent inhibitors might be a promising alternative to employ in therapy, because of the lack of all drawbacks and side-effects related to irreversible inhibition. In the present work we identified a series of amides, two of which (1b and 1f) are good candidates to non-covalent inhibition of the chymotrypsin-like activity of the β5 proteasome subunit. The non-covalent binding mode was corroborated by docking simulations of the most active inhibitors 1b, 1f and 2h into the yeast 20S proteasome crystal structure.

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