Ricerc@Sapienza

A large library of saccharin and acesulfame derivatives has been synthesised and evaluated against four isoforms of human carbonic anhydrase, the two off-targets hCA I/II and the tumour related isoforms hCA IX/XII. Different strategies of scaffold modification have been attempted on both saccharin as well as acesulfame core leading to the obtainment of 60 compounds. Some of them exhibited inhibitory activity in the nanomolar range, albeit some of the performed changes led to either micromolar activity or to its absence, against hCA IX/XII.

So far, the design of human carbonic anhydrase (CA) inhibitors has been easily driven by the introduction of specific Zinc Binding Groups (ZBGs) (primary and secondary sulfonamides and their bioisosteres, dithiocarbamates, phosphonates, hydroxamic acids, and so on), which directly or indirectly block the enzyme-mediated catalytic CO2 hydration. All these inhibitors have been elegantly characterized by X-ray diffraction studies of hCA II-inhibitor adducts. The results led to the discovery of several drug candidates potent and selective for clinical purposes.