Synthesis of Novel Sulfonamide-Based Calpain Inhibitors and Their Potential as Anti-Tumor Agents

<p>Calpain is a class of intracellular cytoplasmic cysteine proteases.1 The enzyme participates in different intracellular signaling pathways that are mediated by Ca2+.2 The two major isoforms of calpain universally distributed in most mammalian tissues are calpain 1 (µ-calpain) and calpain 2 (m-calpain). The exact in vivo function of the enzyme is not clear, but calpain has been implicated in a variety of physiological and pathological conditions,3 such as cancer, stroke, cardiac ischaemia, muscular dystrophy, cataract and Alzheimer’s disease. Calpain inhibitors are therefore of interest as therapeutic agents and as biomedical tools.</p> <p>Several potent calpain inhibitors isolated from natural sources as well as synthesized in the laboratory have been reported (Chapter 1.4). Unfortunately, most of the inhibitors show poor calpain selectivity, metabolic stability and cell permeability. In an attempt to develop potential calpain inhibitors based on the X-ray crystal structure of the µ-calpain, NCI compound library was screened by virtual screening method and diazosulfonamide <strong>1 </strong>(<em>K</em>i = 1.0 ± 0.02 µM) was identified as a new nonpeptide competitive inhibitor of µ-calpain. Analogues of <strong>1 </strong>were synthesized to explore structure requirements of <strong>1 </strong>(Chapter 2). In order to test the hypothesis that derivatives of diazosulfonamide <strong>1 </strong>with an electrophilic group can have a covalent interaction with cysteine at the active site of calpain, novel sulfonamide-based peptidomimetic analogues of <strong>1 </strong>were synthesized and assayed for their ability to inhibit µ-calpain utilizing a kinetic fluorescence assay and for their anti-tumor ability by SRB colorimetric assay (Chapter 3). Introduction of the electrophilic functionality significantly enhanced calpain inhibition. From 13 target compounds, 7 compounds had better calpain 1 inhibition (<em>K</em>i ranging from 9 to 500nM) than <strong>1 </strong>and 5 showed good anticancer activity (GI50 ranging from 4 to 22µM). Sulfonamide-based peptidomimetic analogue <strong>19 </strong>with <em>K</em>i of 9 nM is over 100-fold more potent than the lead diazosulfonamide <strong>1</strong>. Compound <strong>16 </strong>was the most effective anticancer agent (GI50 4µM) of the series.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science (MS)

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Pharmaceutical Sciences

Year dc:date.available

2007

Author dc:creator

• Xu, Jin

Contributors dc:contributor

• Isaac O. Donkor, Ph.D.

• calpain
• anti-cancer
• calpain inhibitors
• sulfonamide analogs
• Medicinal and Pharmaceutical Chemistry
• Medicine and Health Sciences
• Pharmaceutics and Drug Design
• Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences

Repository record dc:identifier

https://dc.uthsc.edu/dissertations/297

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dc.uthsc.edu:dissertations-1305