Allosteric modulation of caspases.

Caspases are proteolytic enzymes mainly involved in the induction and execution phases of apoptosis. This type of programmed cell death is an essential regulatory process required to maintain the integrity and homeostasis of multicellular organisms. Inappropriate apoptosis is attributed a key role in many human diseases, including neurodegenerative disorders, ischemic damage, autoimmune diseases and cancer. Allosteric modulation of the function of a protein occurs when the regulatory trigger, such as the binding of a small effector or inhibitor molecule, takes place some distance from the protein's active site. In recent years, several caspases have been identified that possess allosteric sites and binding of small molecule to these sites resulted in the modulation of enzyme activities. Regulation of caspase activity by small molecule allosteric modulators is believed to be of great therapeutic importance. In this review we give brief highlights on recent developments in identifying and characterizing natural and synthetic allosteric inhibitors as well as activators of caspases and discuss their potential in drug discovery and protein engineering.

Identification of the first low-molecular-weight inhibitors of matriptase-2.

As recently discovered, matriptase-2, a type II transmembrane serine protease, plays a crucial role in body iron homeostasis by down-regulating hepcidin expression, which results in increased iron levels. Thus, matriptase-2 represents a novel target for the development of enzyme inhibitors potentially useful for the treatment of systemic iron overload (hemochromatosis). A comparative three-dimensional model of the catalytic domain of matriptase-2 was generated and utilized for structure-based virtual screening in combination with similarity searching and knowledge-based compound design. Two N-protected dipeptide amides containing a 4-amidinobenzylamide as P1 residue (compounds 1 and 3) were identified as the first small molecule inhibitors of matriptase-2 with K(i) values of 170 and 460 nM, respectively. An inhibitor of the closely related protease matriptase (compound 2, K(i) = 220 nM), with more than 50-fold selectivity over matriptase-2, was also identified.

Development of nitrile-based peptidic inhibitors of cysteine cathepsins.

It is now becoming clear that several papain-like cysteine cathepsins are involved in the pathophysiology of diseases such as osteoporosis, autoimmune disorders, and cancer. Therefore, the development of potent and selective cathepsin inhibitors is an attractive subject for medicinal chemists. New advances have been made for nitrile-based inhibitors, leading to the identification of the cathepsin K inhibitor odanacatib and other candidates with potential for therapeutic use. This review summarizes the development of peptidic and peptidomimetic compounds with an electrophilic nitrile 'warhead' as inhibitors of the cysteine cathepsins B, S, L, C, and K. Peptide nitriles have been shown to reversibly react with the active site cysteine under formation of a covalent thioimidate adduct. The structural optimization with respect to the positions P3, P2, P1, P1', and P2' resulted in the identification of potent and selective inhibitors of the corresponding cathepsins. The underlying structure-activity relationships are discussed herein.