Ricerc@Sapienza

We designed and synthesized 21 new indolylarylsulfones (IASs) as new HIV-1 NNRTIs. Among these, IAS 12 exhibited a remarkable antiviral activity against single and double mutants (K103N EC50 = <0.7 nM; Y181C EC50 = <0.7 nM; Y188L EC50 = 21.3 nM; K103N–Y181C EC50 = 6.2 nM), resulting equally or more active than previuosly reported IAS 6 and some approved anti-HIV-1 drugs. Docking and molecular dynamics simulations of compound 12 in complex with WT, Y181C, Y188L, K103N and K103N–Y181C RTs clarified a general binding mode that was consistent with biological results.

Due to the biological liability of diketo acid (DKA) chain, we transferred this element of our previously reported anti-HIV-1 pyrrolyl derivatives to a non-DKA scaffold, obtaining a series of pyrrolyl-pyrazole carboxylic acids as new RNase H inhibitors. Among the newly synthesized derivatives, oxyphenylpyrrolyl-pyrazoles demonstrated inhibitory activities within the low micromolar/submicromolar range with compound 11b being the most potent. Interestingly, all tested compounds showed up to 2 orders of magnitude of selectivity for RNase H vs integrase.