A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal
Identification of the Privileged Position in the Imidazo[1,2-a]pyridine Ring of Phosphonocarboxylates for Development of Rab Geranylgeranyl Transferase (RGGT) Inhibitors
Authors: Kaźmierczak Aleksandra, Kusy Damian, Niinivehmas Sanna, Gmach Joanna, Joachimiak Łukasz, Pentikäinen Olli, Gendaszewska-Darmach Edyta, Blazewska Katarzyna
Publication year: 2017
Journal: Journal of Medicinal Chemistry
Volume: 60
Issue: 21
First page : 8781
Last page: 8800
Number of pages: 20
ISSN: 0022-2623
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jmedchem.7b00811
Members of the Rab GTPase family are master regulators of vesicle trafficking. When disregulated, they are associated with a number of pathological states. The inhibition of RGGT, an enzyme responsible for post-translational geranylgeranylation of Rab GTPases represents one way to control the activity of these proteins. Because the number of molecules modulating RGGT is limited, we combined molecular modeling with biological assays to ascertain how modifications of phosphonocarboxylates, the first reported RGGT inhibitors, rationally improve understanding of their structure–activity relationship. We have identified the privileged position in the core scaffold of the imidazo[1,2-a]pyridine ring, which can be modified without compromising compounds’ potency. Thus modified compounds are micromolar inhibitors of Rab11A prenylation, simultaneously being inactive against Rap1A/Rap1B modification, with the ability to inhibit proliferation of the HeLa cancer cell line. These findings were rationalized by molecular docking, which recognized interaction of phosphonic and carboxylic groups as decisive in phosphonocarboxylate localization in the RGGT binding site.