ABSTRACT
The objective of this work was to design conjugates of anti-HIV nucleosides conjugated with fatty acids and cell-penetrating poly-L-arginine (polyArg) peptides. Three conjugates of polyArg cell-penetrating peptides with fatty acyl derivatives of alovudine (FLT), lamivudine (3TC), and emtricitabine (FTC) were synthesized. In general, the compounds exhibited anti-HIV activity against X4 and R5 cell-free virus with EC50 values of 1.5-16.6 µM. FLT-CO-(CH2)12-CO-(Arg)7 exhibited EC50 values of 2.9 µM and 3.1 µM against X4 and R5 cell-free virus, respectively. The FLT conjugate was selected for further preformulation studies by determination of solution state degradation and lipid solubility. The compound was found to be stable in neutral and oxidative conditions and moderately stable in heated conditions.
Subject(s)
Anti-HIV Agents/chemical synthesis , Deoxyribonucleosides/chemical synthesis , Peptides/chemistry , Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors/chemical synthesis , Anti-HIV Agents/chemistry , Anti-HIV Agents/pharmacology , Cell-Penetrating Peptides/chemistry , Deoxycytidine/analogs & derivatives , Deoxycytidine/chemistry , Deoxyribonucleosides/chemistry , Deoxyribonucleosides/pharmacology , Dicarboxylic Acids/chemistry , Dideoxynucleosides/chemistry , Emtricitabine , Humans , Lamivudine/analogs & derivatives , Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors/chemistry , Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors/pharmacologyABSTRACT
A number of 5'-O-dicarboxylic fatty acyl monoester derivatives of 3'-azido-3'-deoxythymidine (zidovudine, AZT), 2',3'-didehydro-2',3'-dideoxythymidine (stavudine, d4T), and 3'-fluoro-3'-deoxythymidine (alovudine, FLT) were synthesized to improve the lipophilicity and potentially the cellular delivery of parent polar 2', 3'-dideoxynucleoside (ddN) analogues. The compounds were evaluated for their anti-HIV activity. Three different fatty acids with varying chain length of suberic acid (octanedioic acid), sebacic acid (decanedioic acid), and dodecanedioic acid were used for the conjugation with the nucleosides. The compounds were evaluated for anti-HIV activity and cytotoxicity. All dicarboxylic ester conjugates of nucleosides exhibited significantly higher anti-HIV activity than that of the corresponding parent nucleoside analogs. Among all the tested conjugates, 5'-O-suberate derivative of AZT (EC50 = 0.10 nM) was found to be the most potent compound and showed 80-fold higher anti-HIV activity than AZT without any significant toxicity (TC50 > 500 nM).